UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

Schlumberger Soundings In Fish Lake Valley Area, Nevada

By

Stephen A. Manydeeds, Vincent J. Flanigan,

Karen R. Christopherson, and Vladimir Farkash

Open-File Report 78-

1978

This report is preliminary and has not been edited or reviewed for conformity with U.S. Geological Survey standards.

Schlumberger Soundings In

Fish Lake Valley Area, Nevada

By

Stephen A. Manydeeds, Vincent J. Flanigan,

Karen R. Christopherson, and Vladimir Farkash

In June 1977, the United States Geological Survey made a total of 10

Schlumberger resistivity soundings and two very low frequency (VLF) and

Slingram electromagnetic traverses in the Fish Lake Valley area, Nevada. The

work was performed as a part of a program to determine the best methods for

exploring and defining potential lithium-bearing brines. Fish Lake Valley is

adjacent to Clayton Valley, the only area in the United States where lithium

is being produced from brines. The Schlumberger soundings were made to help

determine the geoelectric section within the Fish Lake Valley basin, and the

Slingram and VLF traverses were made to help define the conductivity of the

uppermost rock units in the basin.

Figure 1 shows the seven Schlumberger sounding stations and the VLF and

Slingram traverse in Fish Lake Valley. Figure 2 shows the three Schlumberger

sounding stations and the VLF and Slingram traverse in Columbus Salt Marsh.

The appendix presents the Schlumberger data, interpretations of the sounding

curves, and the Slingram and VLF data. All the sounding curves were

The use of brand names in this report is for descriptive purposes only and does not constitute endorsement by the U.S. Geological Survey.

automatically processed and interpreted using computer programs developed by

Zohdy (1973 and 1975), and are shown in the graphs given in the appendix.

The Slingram and VLF traverses, which are plotted in profile form, will

be used for examination of the resistive structures of the subsurface rocks.

The Slingram method has been discussed by Keller and Frischknecht (1966)

in detail, and therefore no discussion of the method will be presented here.

The Slingram data were collected at five frequencies (222, 444, 888, 1777 and

3555 Hz); however, only two frequencies (444 and 1727 Hz) are shown here.

The VLF method has been thoroughly discussed by Patterson and Ronka

(1971). Briefly, the VLF method measures dip or tilt angle, the ellipticity

of the ellipse of polarization of the magnetic field, the phase of the surface

impedance, and the apparent resistivity in ohm-m.

Appendix

Each graph shows the following information:

(1) Field data indicated by a segmented solid-line curve with diamond symbols

marking observed data.

(2) The continuous "field" curve (represented by the square symbols) was

obtained by maintaining the position of the last segment and shifting

each of the previous segments, up or down so that the last point on each

segment coincided with the corresponding point on the following segment

(Zohdy and others, 1973).

(3) The field curve was digitized at the rate of six points per logarithmic

cycle. The individual digitized points are shown as diamond symbols and

are connected by solid lines. The field curve data was then smoothed by

a computer program using a bicubic spline function (Anderson, 1971).

The resultant smoothed data were then passed to an automatic

interpretation program to obtain the best-fitting theoretical sounding

curve for a horizontally layered medium (Zohdy, 1973). The automatic

interpretation program used here was identical to that in a program

recently written for inverting Wenner sounding curves (Zohdy and

Bisdorf, 1975).

(4) The theoretical best-fitting sounding curve plotted as (+) symbols.

(5) The detailed layering for which the theoretical curve was calculated andV

plotted.

(6) The D.Z. (Dar-Zarrouk) curve for the detailed layering. The ordinate

values for the D.Z. curves were shifted upward or downward by one

logarithmic cycle to avoid cluttering the graphs. The D.Z. curves can

be used to obtain equivalent and simpler solutions containing fewer

number of layers. They can also be used to impose certain constraints

on the layer thicknesses and resistivities (Zohdy, 1974).

All these graphs were generated on a graphic plotter. The plotter-driving

subroutines were developed by G. I. Evenden of the U.S. Geological Survey.

-References

Anderson, W. L. , 1971, Application of bicubic spline functions to two-

dimensional gridded data: U.S. Dept. Commerce, Springfield, VA, Kept.

PB-203579.

Evenden, Gerald I'., 1975, A general purpose contouring system, U»S. Geol.

Survey open-file report 75-317, 107 p.

Keller, G. V. and Frischknecht, F. C., 1966, Electrical methods in geophysical

prospecting: Oxford, Pergamon Press, p.380-396.

Patterson, M. R. and Ronka, V., 1971, Five years of surveying with the very-

low frequency electromagnetic method: Geoexploration, v. 9, p. 7-26.

Zohdy, A. A. R. , 1973, A computer program for the automatic interpretation of

Schlumberger sounding curves over horizontally stratified media: U.S.

Dept. Commerce, Springfield, VA, Rept. PB-232703/AS, 25 p.

Zohdy, Adel A. R. , 1974a, The use of Dar-Zarrouk curves in the interpretation

of VES data: U.S. Geol. Survey Bull. 1313-D, 41 p.

Zohdy, A. A. R. , 1974b, Automatic interpretations of Schlumberger sounding

curves using modified Dar-Zarrouk functions: U.S. Geol. Survey Bull.

1313-E, 39 p.

Zohdy, A. A. R. , and Bisdorf, F. J. , 1975, Computer programs for the forward

calculation and automatic inversion of Wenner sounding curves: U.S.

Dept. Commerce, Springfield VA, Rept. PB-247265/AS.

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