Geophysical Investigation of Wuda Coal Mining Area, Inner Mongolia: Electromagnetics and Magnetics for Coal Fire Detection

As part of the Sino-German Coal Fire Research Initiative “Innovative Technologies for Exploration, Extinction, and Monitoring of Coal Fires in North China,” the China Aero Geophysical Survey and Remote Sensing Center for Land and Resources (AGRS), assisted by the German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR), carried out in 2004 an airborne electromagnetic and magnetic survey of Wuda Coal Mining Area (Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, P.R. China). In the following year, ground geophysical surveys using transient electromagnetics (BGR) and magnetics (AGRS and Deutsche Montan Technologie GmbH, DMT) were conducted in selected parts of the area. The objective of these geophysical surveys was to detect and delineate coal fire areas through physical parameters obtained over burning and burned coal seams. The electromagnetic surveys served to reveal areas of high electrical conductivity, the magnetic surveys those with clearly pronounced magnetic field intensity.