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Delineation of Heavy Mineral Bearing Placers by Electrical Resistivity and Radiometric Techniques Along Coastal Odisha, India

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Abstract

The distribution of heavy minerals in the beach placer deposits of the eastern coastal areas of India is investigated using electrical resistivity and radiometric methods. A combination of electrical resistivity and radioactivity measurement techniques was utilized for the first time to delineate heavy mineral bearing zones along the beach. The objective of this study was to delineate the spatial and vertical extension and also to locate the existence of concealed pockets of heavy minerals. A total of seven resistivity and radioactivity profiles, both parallel and perpendicular to the coastline, were measured. The radiometric measurements were performed both in the field and in the laboratory using a portable Geiger-Müller (GM) counter and a high-purity germanium detector (HPGe), respectively. A zone with inverted resistivity values from 0.1 to 1.1 Ωm and depths extending to approximately 20 m from the surface was interpreted as the heavy mineral bearing zone. The surficial exposures of heavy mineral bearing placers were located by integrating the results of the resistivity and radiometric techniques. The zones with high conductivity and high radioactivity values were identified as the heavy mineral bearing placers containing monazite. Good agreement was observed between the resistivity and the radioactivity data for the very shallow deposits of heavy mineral placers. In general, the area shows a patchy distribution of heavy minerals along the coast.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Mr. Gaurav Kumar and Mr. Yashavant Kumar Singh for their help and support during the data acquisition and field survey. We acknowledge the financial assistance received from the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), DST, Govt. of India, under project code YSS/2015/000979.

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  1. Department of Geology and Geophysics, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur, West Bengal, India

    Shayantani Ghosal, Akarsh Singh, Sudha Agrahari & Debashish Sengupta

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  1. Shayantani Ghosal
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Ghosal, S., Singh, A., Agrahari, S. et al. Delineation of Heavy Mineral Bearing Placers by Electrical Resistivity and Radiometric Techniques Along Coastal Odisha, India. Pure Appl. Geophys. 177, 4913–4923 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-020-02502-3

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