GEOCHEMICAL

SURVEY
VEGETATION SURVEY (GEOBOTANY AND BIOGEOCHEMICAL)
GEO-ZOOLOGICAL SURVEY
ATMO-GECHEMICAL ( VAPOR SURVEY)
 VEGETATION SURVEY

A vegetation survey can broadly be grouped as

1. Geobotany
2. Biogeochemistry

The vegetation survey will receive prominence as an exploration

guide for the future as much of the world’s mineral resources are
hidden beneath vegetation (Colin, 2007).
GEOBOTANY

VEGETATION SURVEY
• Plants usually respond to the geological environment in which
they grow, and may show characteristic changes with respect to
form, size, color, growth rate, and toxic effects.

• Geobotany uses these environmental variations to recognize the

presence or absence of specific plant populations in a location,
and is critically associated with particular elements.
 VEGETATION SURVEY
Impatiens balsamina or garden balsamor rose balsam (Balsaminaceae family)
often grow over the outcrops of zinc-lead deposits and act as a natural
geobotanical guide for mineral exploration as evidenced at Zawar belt, India.
 VEGETATION SURVEY
Growth of Nyctanthes arbor-tristis or night jasmine or Seuli (Oleaceae family)
often play the role of a geobotanical guide for the exploration of sulfide deposits
at Zawar belt, India.
BIOGEOCHEMICAL

VEGETATION SURVEY
• Biogeochemistry encompasses the collection and chemical
analysis of whole plants, selected parts, and humus. The
mobilized elements dissolve and enrich in soils during chemical
weathering.

• As plants and trees grow, these dissolved elements, including

metals, from soil are extracted by roots that act as a sampling
agent. The elements migrate to various parts of the tree, such as
roots, trunk, stem, and finally to leaves.
• Anomalies indicating buried mineralization can be detected by

VEGETATION SURVEY
judicial selection of appropriate parts of plants (roots, bark, twigs,
needles, and leaves) and subject to analysis.

• The widely distributed plants of the same species, ages, and parts
should be sampled from location to location and values compared
for signs of anomaly.

• The samples should be washed thoroughly and dried before

burning. The quantity should be large enough to generate
adequate ash for trace element analysis.
 GEO-ZOOLOGICAL SURVEY

• Humans and animals of certain territories suffer from specific

diseases due to excess intake or deficiency of certain elements
enriched in surrounding rocks and soils.

• The common transfer routes are through drinking water, milk,

vegetables, and cattle feed grass from local areas.

• People suffering from arsenosis, arthritis, fluorosis, sclerosis, and

goiter indicate anomalous trace elements of As, Cd, F, Hg, and I
deficiency, respectively.
 GEO-ZOOLOGICAL SURVEY
Schematic illustration showing growth of plants by extraction of metallic
elements from soil and migration from root acting as a sampling agent to the
leaves.
 ATMO-GEOCHEMICAL
(VAPOR SURVEY)

Vapor surveys (atmo-geochemical) help in locating buried deposits

through detection of halos of mercury, helium, nitrogen, sulfur
dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, hydrocarbon, radon, methane, and other
gases and volatile elements, often at a considerable distance from the
source of mineralization.

The vapors can be detected from air, soils, and groundwater. Volatile
elements are released through oxidation of ore deposits.
Mercury (Hg) vapor anomalies are determined over structurally
controlled mineralization in arid terrain. Hg anomalies are associated

VAPOR SURVEY
with concealed deep-seated hightemperature geothermal systems,
zinc-lead sulfide assemblages, hydrocarbon gas, and oil fields.

Hg gas from soil can be sampled by precipitation of Hg as amalgam

on extra pure noble metal foils (Ag) in a couple of hours and
analyzed to suggest deep-seated sulfide mineralization (Talapatra,
2006).
 VAPOR SURVEY
Vapor sampling instrument collecting subsurface metal elements from
mineralization located at depth.
Helium (He) anomalies are produced by radioactive decay and are
found over oil reservoirs, hot springs, porphyry copper, and uranium
deposits. Samples from shallow depth of soil are collected and

VAPOR SURVEY
analyzed by mass spectrometry.

Nitrogen concentrations (anomalies) increase toward the center of

hydrocarbon-bearing basins. Methane (CH4), nitrogen, other natural
gases, and asphalt (a sticky black and highly viscous liquid or
semiliquid) are present in most crude petroleum basins and coal
deposits.
 VAPOR SURVEY
Oozing of hot methane and nitrogen gas bubbles from Rancho La Brea Tar Pits,
Los Angeles County, one of the world’s most famous fossil locations. The Pits
are on the top of a crude oil basin discovered in 1900 followed by exploration
and production from 1907.
 VAPOR SURVEY
Oozing of hot crude oil and shiny black asphalt to the surface (foreground) over
the abandoned petroleum basin in front of Page Museum, Rancho La Brea, in
the heart of Los Angeles County. The background is the lass green grass park for
public recreation around the museum. Author, Srishti and Srishta,
reconnaissance tour, July 2010.