Machine learning interpretation of inter-well radiowave survey data
Traditional geological search methods going to be ineffective. The exploration depth of kimberlite bodies and ore deposits has increased significantly. The only direct exploration method is to drill a system of wells to the depths that provide access to the enclosing rocks. Due to the high cost of drilling, the role of inter-well survey methods has increased. They allows to increase the mean well spacing without significantly reducing the kimberlite or ore body missing probability. The method of inter-well radio wave survey is effective to search for high contrast conductivity objects. The physics of the method based on the dependence of the electromagnetic wave propagation on the propagation medium conductivity. The source and receiver of electromagnetic radiationis an electric dipole, they are placed in adjacent wells. The distance between the source and receiver is known. Therefore we could estimate the medium absorption coefficient by the rate of radio wave amplitude decrease. Low electrical resistance rocks corresponds to high absorption of radio waves. The inter-well measurement data allows to estimate an effective electrical resistance (or conductivity) of the rock. Typically, the source and receiver are immersed in adjacent wells synchronously. The value of the of the electric field amplitude measured at the receiver site allows to estimate the average value of the attenuation coefficient on the line connecting the source and receiver. The measurements are taken during stops, approximately every 5 m. The distance between stops is much less than the distance between adjacent wells. This leads to significant spatial anisotropy in the measured data distribution. Drill grid covers a large area, and our point is to build a three-dimensional model of the distribution of the electrical properties of the inter-well space throughout the whole area. The anisotropy of spatial distribution makes hard to the use of standard geostatistics approach. To build a three-dimensional model of attenuation coefficient, we used one of machine learning theory methods, the method of nearest neighbors. In this method, the value of the absorption coefficient at a given point is calculated by k nearest measurements. The number k should be determined from additional reasons. The spatial distribution anisotropy effect can bereduced by changing the spatial scale in the horizontal direction. The scale factor λ is one yet external parameterof the problem. To select the parameters k and λ values we used the determination coefficient. To demonstratethe absorption coefficient three-dimensional image construction we apply the procedure to the inter-well radiowave survey data. The data was obtained at one of the sites in Yakutia.