By: Andy Parsekian

An article on this project has just been published in a special issue of The Leading Edge (TLE) on humanitarian geophysics.  Here's the abstract; a link to the full article follows:

"The Aboriginal population of the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) lands in South Australia is dependent on groundwater for nearly all water needs. In that region, placement of wells in productive aquifers of appropriate water quality is challenging because of lack of hydrologic data and variable aquifer properties. It is desirable to have an improved ability to identify and evaluate groundwater resources in this remote region with cost-effective methods that make minimal impact on the environment. A project supported by the Society of Exploration Geophysicists program Geoscientists Without Borders tested a combined geophysical approach with airborne and ground-based data sets to locate a potential aquifer, confirm water content, and estimate the subsurface extent of the water-bearing zone. This hydrogeophysical approach was an effective means for exploration and evaluation of groundwater resources in APY lands generally, and it characterized a specific aquifer as a case study."

Full Article (subscription required)

A reflection on the field experience

By: Denys Grombacher

Andy and Denys looking at the NMR data.

I just got back to San Francisco yesterday after an amazing trip to the APY lands. It was a great experience, both in terms of cultural experience and getting to explore a new part of the world.  It was also an amazing opportunity for myself, as a young scientist, to participate in large field study in remote and challenging conditions. My Ph.D has consisted primarily of synthetic studies conducted on a computer so far. While I have thoroughly enjoyed my Ph.D, the reason I got into geophysics in the first place was to get outside, and work in really cool places. And the APY lands definitely qualifies as a really cool place.

Hard at work in the outback.

It was very rewarding to apply the tools I’ve developed during my studies to a problem critical to remote communities, but one of the biggest learning experiences that I hadn’t expected was getting to see first hand everything that goes into planning a field study in remote conditions. I was responsible for some planning prior to our arrival in Australia, mostly hiring vehicles and coordinating a 4 wheel drive training course (which was SUPER fun) but almost all of the organization of the field campaign was done by our CSIRO colleagues (thanks Kevin, Aaron, and Tim). Since we were working in such a remote place we were responsible for bringing in nearly all our own supplies: food for the full two weeks, lots of water, all the geophysical equipment and supplementary supplies necessary for the field work. I really gained an appreciation for how much planning goes into conducting such a large study. Everything went smoothly in the field thanks largely to the comprehensive preparation.  Another important aspect of remote field work I learned is the need for redundant safety systems. Whenever we went into the field every crew had 3 to 4 safety systems that they could use to alert someone in the event of an accident. We had CB radios, satellite phones, spots (an automated GPS that uploads your current position every 15 minutes, and is capable of transmitting a distress signal to search and rescue), and another GPS capable of transmitting a distress signal. After this experience I feel confident that I would be able to coordinate and execute a remote field study. I left Australia with a renewed enthusiasm for field work, and an increased excitement to get back out into the field.

Lots of open spaces to put out NMR and TEM loops!

Using Geophysics for Groundwater Exploration and Aquifer Characterization

By: Andy Parsekian

Brady sets up the NMR instrument.

The objectives of this project are to demonstrate the effectiveness of combined time-domain electromagnetic (TEM) and surface nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) for groundwater exploration in the APY lands of northwest South Australia, and to identify possible new groundwater resources.  The TEM measurement has been used for decades both in a ground-based acquisition mode and attached to aircraft.  This method is particularly effective at imaging the subsurface over long distances due to the rapid speed of data acquisition, although it is sometimes limited due to ambiguous interpretation of electrical properties of the subsurface.  The surface NMR method has also been used for decades, however in the past ten years, this method has seen particularly exciting developments and improvement in instrumentation.  Surface NMR is special among geophysical measurements because it is exclusively and unambiguous to liquid water.  The most common limitations for surface NMR are either not enough water in the aquifer to generate a signal or too much ambient “noise” that masks the signal we desire to detect.  Fortunately, at our field sites in the APY lands, there were regularly aquifers present within the top   50 m of the subsurface and the noise was very low enabling easy collection of high-quality data. 

The surface NMR instrument was set up on the bed of a truck.
Here, Denys sets up the system for data acquisition.

Aaron and Kevin making
a TEM sounding.

Tim Munday (dark shirt) discusses an
airborne geophysics dataset with
the group.

Our general strategy was to first look at large scale airborne geophysical maps that are available from Geoscience Australia.   We were able to identify certain targets that seemed like a possible aquifer from these maps.  Then, we took the TEM and surface NMR instruments to the field to analyze the targets in high details.  The TEM measurement was used at many sites along our target transect to get a high-resolution spatially semi-continuous image of subsurface structure, with particular focus on the position of the base of the aquifer.  Then, we visited several of the TEM sites with the surface NMR instrument that has a much longer data acquisition time and therefore less total measurements were possible.  The next step is, after more rigorous data processing, to interpret the TEM data using the direct water observations from the NMR to best characterize the aquifer. 

Denys using the magnetometer
before starting the NMR survey.

The preliminary results of our efforts have demonstrated the both the NMR and TEM methods are very well suited to the geologic conditions of the APY lands.  One of the possible limitations in this region is the magnetic geologic materials that are present that could limit the ability of surface NMR to reliably detect water.  Fortunately, we found that although the effect of magnetic materials was observable in our signals, due to the low noise conditions at the site we were still able to analyze those data.  Furthermore, we also were also able to utilize an NMR data acquisition mode that has been newly implemented in the surface NMR instrument that allowed us to minimize the contribution of magnetic effects to the signal. 

Understanding Aboriginal Art: An interview with Beverly Peacock owner of the Kajiti Art Gallery in Fregon

By: Brady Flinchum

An example of some street painting in the
small community of Fregon. Just front the
grafted wall you can see how much color is
used in the aboriginal paintings, even though
this is not traditional at all.

     Since data collection went well I had the opportunity to sit down and talk with Beverley Peacock, the owner and operator of the Kajiti Art Gallery in Fregon, SA. I really wanted to know how water, in particular, groundwater influences the aboriginal art in her gallery. Unfortunately, due to the fear of these beautiful art pieces being reproduced I did not have permission to take pictures of anything inside the gallery. Beverly was originally from South Africa and traveled to Australia because her husband helped set up a lot of the infrastructure, such as power and sewage, which allow the communities to stay in one place. Beverly said that when she moved to Fregon in the early to mid 1990's there were no standing buildings, electricity or running water. This really shocked me because that was only about 25 years ago! Essentially, white man had very little influence over the aboriginal culture until the late 1800's early 1900s when a major drought forced them to interact and obtain goods to do a major drought.
     I asked Beverly how the water influences some of the paintings and she simply told me that the artists paint what they know. I guess this is not super shocking, but it is very clear when you walk into the gallery simply by the colors selected. There are a lot of brown earth tones, and dark greens and yellows. These colors are very similar to most of the dirt, boulders and vegetation that we saw when we were out in the field. There are also a lot of paintings that have deep blues, teals and oranges. These colors more than likely stem from the beautiful sunsets and sun rises that we saw on a nightly basis while in the field. The picture in the upper left is the old supermarket that is located next to the art gallery. I am using this image because, although I couldn't take images within the gallery this building can gives you a sense of how brightly colored some of this artwork is, and the variety that is presented. One thing I want to point out is the pools of water that are painted on the ground.  Despite a fairly large rainstorm that came through about 2 weeks before we arrived we did not see any surface water. The desert was green and new grass was growing because of the amount of water.

Image of one of many sunsets we had in
the outback. I just wanted to post this to
show you the array of colors that can be
seen so far away from civilization.

     Beverly said to me that life out here is completely influence by food and water. Water is so important that the aboriginal artists have a symbol for rock holes, which essentially represent locations where water can be found. A common theme to a lot of the paintings was to draw the land that the artist grew up on as if they were looking down over the land from a helicopter. This is interesting because Beverly assured me that most of them have never been in an airplane before. If you can put yourself in that perspective you can start to see these paintings as maps of their land. In almost every painting you will see at least one rock hole, or some kind of blue droplet, probably representing rain. The gallery was filled with hundreds of paintings and almost of them, because they paint what they know, has some kind of influence of water.

I wanted to say thank you to Beverly for letting me talk with you and giving me all of the information.

The aboriginal symbol of rock holes. Image was taken from:
http://www.jintaart.com.au/iconography/water.htmAdd caption

My cultural experience upon returning from the APY Lands

By: Brady Flinchum

     My experience of spending over a week in the outback on the Anangu Pitjantjatjar Yankunytjatjar (APY) Lands extremely special. I got to see, and photograph a part of the world that very few people have ever been to. I had the chance to talk to long time government employees and even got shown around by a very old aboriginal man. Although it was very hard to understand him it was an amazing experience. I know the experience was very special because even the Australians that I talked to in Adelaide prior to departure have never been there or thought about going out there. This is a part of the world that is so isolated and culturally different than anywhere I have ever been. 

Andy, Denys and me on the first in the APY lands.

We stayed in an Australian government facility that was built for the Indigenous people to lean new trades such as cooking, welding or becoming mechanics. The building was completely self sustaining. It ran everything via solar power and septic tanks. We stayed in a village called Umawa, this is the small community where some regional services are centralized. This was really neat because I got to sit down and chat with a few different people who have been working and helping the aboriginal people. Some of these employees have been up there for over 15 years. I had the privilege to interview Gary McWilliams, the Mining Officer for the lands.  

Gary was an interesting old bloke. His job was to facilitate communications between outside mining companies and the traditional land owners and council. Gary had been working out of Umawa for about 15 years. Gary was somewhat of a photographer and  was a very gentle, nostalgic guy. As you can tell from the image he had lots of pictures pinned up all around his office. I asked him about some of his images and he told me that anyone that came by to talk to him he would ask them for a picture. He also told me the ones on his walls were  his favorite and he had many more on his computer.

Gary McWilliams telling me a story about this older gentleman,
his wife and their niece that came to talk to him one afternoon.

When I interviewed Gary I asked him about the importance of water on the indigenous culture. Gary iterated how important groundwater is in this part of the world, not only for the survival of the indigenous people but it is also required for moving infrastructure into the outback.
Gary told me about an experience of him and other indigenous people cleaning out ancient rock holes. Rock holes are areas where after rain storms water would pool for long periods of times or a rock hole could imply a a hole in the ground that had access to the local water table. Now that we have modern technology and can drill into the groundwater these rock holes are no longer used, but they are being preserved. After about an hour to two hour talk with Gary I he really made me understand the importance of groundwater in this part of the world. It rarely rains and gets up to 40-45 degrees C (~102-113 F) in the summer time out here.

     I also had the chance to talk with an anthropologist named Mike. The most interesting fact that he told me was that the map of the the original indigenous people was separated by languages. The each individual letter in the APY Lands stands for a different language: Anangu, Pitjantjatjar and Yankunytjatjara. Mike was showing me a map and explaining that the groups of people who spoke these languages interacted and merged because of a large drought that occurred in the late 1800 early 1900s. The indigenous people were forced to interact with the railroaders and move toward the coast lines in order to get water. Mike also spoke of the rock holes and how important they were to the culture. It was such an interesting experience because so many of the elders are still alive and remember times prior to white man. They didn’t have full infrastructure in Fregon until the 1990’s! 

The Double Tank well bore. There is current infrastructure that the
now permanent communities rely on to raise cattle and stay in one
 place. This is image of an older well that is run by wind power.

     Since data collection went really well I finally had the chance to go emerge myself and actually talk with the aboriginal people. On our last day in the APY lands I traveled to Fregon and spend the day in their art gallery. Early in the morning I was greeting and shown around by an older aboriginal man, his name was Wijiti George. He was probably in his 70’s was was living on he lands prior to any buildings or water wells going up. I told him that we were there to look for groundwater. He then proceeded to gestured and explain where the groundwater goes. Despite the language barrier he very clearly explained which way the groundwater is flowing by giving names of mountains and towns. He said that the water started in the Musgrove ranges and traveled south west toward Mimli. He was able to identify a groundwater divide. This was a really cool experience because here we are with all of our fancy equipment to quantify the water and he has know the general trend for probably more than 50 years! Unfortunately I was not able to get his picture because the language barrier prevented me from getting consent.

A dried out skull of a cow. In the heat of
summer it probably didn’t make it back to
the watering hole. This was a common
 site on the APY Lands. Groundwater is so
 critical to everyone’s survival.

     All of the interactions I had with the people of the APY Lands really emphasized how important groundwater is to survival and culture. Everywhere you looked there was influences of water. Throughout the outback there were completely bone dry cows who obviously didn’t make it back to their watering hole. There were dried up creek beds and areas where you could see overland flow occurred, but hasn’t occurred in a long time ago. In almost all of the paintings in the art gallery water or rock holes was a major theme. It seems to me that the aboriginal culture was based around groundwater, pretty cool if you ask me.

Me standing in front of the old Fregon store. The art was incredible, you can even see they painted a small lake/pool or something on the building in the lefthand corner.

By: Denys, (photos by Brady)

From Left to Right: Laurie, Denys, Andy and Brady.

We’re now up in Coober Pedy in a hotel that’s carved into a sandstone hill, and you can still see the grooves the tunneling machine left in the wall. We just finished a great dinner after a ten hour drive along the Stuart Highway from Adelaide. A couple days ago we finished our 4 wheel drive skills training course. It poured rain and made for a great day of off-roading. The course was a great experience and I now feel MUCH more comfortable and safe driving the utes in the bush. On the drive out to the off-road track I was disappointed when Laurie, our driving instructor, came on the radio saying that there were 5 kangaroos off to the right because I missed those particular kangaroos. I thought I had missed my chance at seeing any kangaroos. I could not have been more wrong. At the time I lost count we had seen about 80 kangaroos.

Mike Hatch testing the TEM equipment
prior to leaving for the field.

We spent the next day in an Adelaide park with our project partner Michael Hatch (University of Adelaide) testing the TEM systems prior to our departure. The systems were working great and we headed out to Zonge Australia headquarters where we met with Kevin Cahill. At Zonge we loaded all the vehicles with the gear and readied for the trip. After an early morning we hit the road and headed up to Coober Pedy. The drive was long and straight but really entertaining.  We drove past the Flinders range, and Pink Lake. We’re off to the APY lands tomorrow, and we’re really excited to get started on our geophysical data collection.

First few days in Australia!

By: Brady Flinchum

Travel Day 

Melyssa and I enjoying my last day in
 Wyoming in Cheyenne.

So Andy and I left Laramie and arrived in Sydney Australia this morning. Since I am going be away from home without cell service or internet for 3 weeks I spent a few days of uninterrupted time with my wife, Melyssa. Since she will be following the blog I really wanted to let her know that I love and will miss her tremendously and will be looking forward to returning home and telling her about all of the stories.

Over the last 20 hours we have ridden various different sizes of airplanes from the small plane we took from Laramie to Denver and a Boeing 777 we are on from L.A. to Sydney. As we were boarding in Laramie was able to snap of a quick picture of the small plane. I am almost positive that the jet engine on the 777 could fit the entire plane we rode out of Laramie inside of it! Unfortunately I couldn’t get a picture of the 777 because we had such a short layover (only 35 min). This is the biggest plane that I have ever been on and it is also the longest flight I have ever been. I was delighted to see how much legroom I had on this long 14 hour flight. I was expecting to have my own television but I wasn’t expecting it to have games, puzzles and recently released movies.

The small plane that we flew on leaving Laramie, Wyoming

First Day in Adelaide

We met up with Denys in Sydney and took a Boeing 737 to Adelaide, SA. I have to admit I was extremely exhausted because I was unable to sleep on the 14 hour flight. Luckily I did catch a few z's on the short 2 hour plane from Sydney to Adelaide. In order to make sure I got caught up to the right time zone I decided to have a cup of coffee and try to make it until nightfall. On our way to our hotel in downtown Adelaide it was weird for me sitting in the passenger seat as Denys drove because we are driving on the left hand side of the road. Every time I looked up I flinched a little bit thinking were were going to get in a head on! I am still getting used to it, but I am adapting quicker than I though I would.

In arid regions, Aboriginal people had many
ways of finding  enough drinking water.
They cared deeply for their water sources,
often giving them important religious and
social meanings.

Since we flew all night we arrived in Adelaide to early to check into our hotel. We decided to find a place to eat and walked around downtown Adelaide. We made it to the South Australian Museum to learn a little bit more about the aboriginal culture. It turns out they had a special exhibit from the APY lands that we were able to look through. Unfortunately this zone was no camera allowed but the artwork was very colorful and beautiful. It is amazing to me how the aboriginals did and still can live in such a arid place. My favorite exhibit at the museum illustrated how important water is for their survival. They and all kinds of tools to store and cary water one of which included an inside out wallaby! Not only did they use the water to drink they would actually poison surface water, so they could catch and kill wild emus. While the surface pond was poisoned they would depend on on water gathered from roots, or other sources.

Andy (Left) and Denys (Right) looking at the map of the 

Aboriginal boundaries of Australia.

4WD Training

Denys (Left) and Andy (Right) hanging out prior to doing
driving.

Since we will be traveling way out into the bush safety is very important. We will be driving a long way and be very isolated so it is important that we understand how the vehicle we are driving works and functions. For us to be confident in our driving and off roading skills we are taking a 2 day course. . We started this morning and went over the basics of 4WD vehicles. I really learned a lot about tire pressures and how reducing them can really get you out of a sticky situation.  After a few hours in the classroom we drove out to a beach where we got to play around a bit. The point of the exercises were to demonstrate the benefits of 4WD. We did three different exercises today, mostly concerning safety. The first exercise was to weave through cones with and without 4WD and stability control. In order to be safe on the back roads it is important to put the vehicle into 4WD as soon as you hit the dirt because it gives you so much more control when steering and braking, not necessarily because the road is rough or steep. The next two exercises involved braking. For example out where we are going there are wild emus, kangaroos, cattle, and camels. If you see one of these you don't want to swerve off the road (unless it is huge like a cow, camel or another vehicle), you want to stop and hit it at the slowest speed possible.  We traveled 60 and 80 kmh and tried to stop. One of our vehicles had anti-lock brakes (ABS) and the other didn't. I was driving the one without ABS and was able to stop faster than the one with ABS, which really surprised me. It was really an eye opener to see how that extra 20 kmh dramatically increased the distance required to stop. When you got out of the car and looked at the distance required it blew my mind! To say the least when traveling in the back country we will be taking our time and driving fairly slowly. Even after the first day I am already feeling so much better about driving to our destination and we haven't even received all of the behind the wheel training yet.

Andy decelerating from ~80 kmh to 0 kmh in the shortest distance possible.
This vehicle does NOT have ABS.

Denys hitting a cone without the 4WD drive turned on.