The Geological Survey of Canada has acquired aeromagnetic data over much of the Canadian landmass and continues to acquire data in support of geological mapping projects. With the evolution of aeromagnetic survey technology over the last 65 years, the GSC has
defined, applied, and refined survey design, survey specifications, quality control procedures, post-processing standards, and publication products to ensure quality data acquisition and delivery.
Volcanic–sedimentary facies and structural relationships of the Silurian Springdale Group in west-central Newfoundland are indicative of a large collapse caldera with an area of more than 2000 km2. Basaltic flows, andesite flows and pyroclastic rocks, silicic ash-flow tuffs, high-silica rhyolite domes, and volcanically derived debris flows and breccias, fluviatile red sandstones, and conglomerates make up the group. It is bounded on the east and west by up-faulted basement rocks, which include gneisses, amphibolites, and pillow lavas, and in the northwest it unconformably overlies Lower Orodovician submarine volcanics. These margins are intruded by cogenetic and younger granitoid rocks. The volcanic rocks form a calc-alkaline series, although gaps in silica content at 52–56, 67–68, and 73–74% separate them into four groups: basalts, andesites–dacites, rhyolites, and high-silica rhyolites.The high-silica rhyolites are chemically comparable to melts thought to form the upper parts of large, layered silicic magma chambers of epicontinental regions. Such an environment is also suggested by the large area of the Springdale caldera and the fact that it is one of a number of calderas that make up a large Silurian volcanic field in western Newfoundland. An epicontinental tectonothermal environment for central Newfoundland in Silurian–Devonian times is readily explained by the fact that this magmatic activity followed a period of destruction and closure of the early Paleozoic Iapetus Ocean, with trapped heat and basaltic magma causing large-scale melting of thickened and subducted continental crust in an overall transpressional tectonic regime.
A series of experiments was conducted in 2012 at the Defence Research and Development Canada's Suffield Research Centre in Alberta, Canada, during which three radiological dispersal devices were detonated. The detonations released radioactive (140)La into the air, which was then carried by winds and detectable over distances of up to 2 km. The Nuclear Emergency Response group of Natural Resources Canada conducted airborne radiometric surveys shortly following the explosions to map the pattern of radioactivity deposited on the ground. The survey instrument suite was based on large volume NaI(Tl) scintillation gamma radiation detectors, which were situated in a basket mounted exterior to the helicopter and oriented end-to-end to maximize the sensitivity. A standard geophysical data treatment was used to subtract backgrounds and to correct the data to produce counts due to (140)La at the nominal altitude. Sensitivity conversion factors obtained from Monte Carlo simulations were then applied to express the measurements in terms of surface activity concentration in kBq m(-2). Integrated over the survey area, the results indicate that only 20 to 25% of the bomb's original inventory of radioactive material is deposited within a 1.5-km radius of ground zero. These results can be accommodated with a simple model for the RDD behavior and atmospheric dispersion.
In response to the Fukushima nuclear reactor accident, on March 20th, 2011, Natural Resources Canada conducted aerial radiation surveys over water just off the west coast of Vancouver Island. Dose-rate levels were found to be consistent with background radiation, however a clear signal due to (133)Xe was observed. Methods to extract (133)Xe count rates from the measured spectra, and to determine the corresponding (133)Xe activity concentration, were developed. The measurements indicate that (133)Xe concentrations on average lie in the range of 30-70 Bq/m(3).
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