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Earth Technology

Geologists In Norway Are Using Drones With Cameras To Hunt For Oil 44

garymortimer writes "Geologists have long used seismology on the bottom of the ocean or have been throwing dynamite from snowmobiles when they look for oil. But now researchers at Centre for Integrated Petroleum Research, a joint venture between the University of Bergen and Uni Research, have found a new preferred method – using drones to map new oil reserves from the air. ... The group’s main task is to create digital maps in 3D of potential oil fields. Using laser scanners, infrared sensors and digital cameras, the researchers create realistic, virtual models. ... Pictures shot with the help of a drone complement the images from low-level terrain that the researchers already have in hand. The end result is more precise and complete 3D models."
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Geologists In Norway Are Using Drones With Cameras To Hunt For Oil

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  • by tatman ( 1076111 ) on Friday May 17, 2013 @11:25AM (#43753805) Homepage
    I was hoping for link to an article that explained this in more detail.....
  • by Anonymous Coward
    We could combine anti-terrorist drone strikes with seismological surveys and get a pretty decent map of the oil reserves. Win-win!
  • Nothing new (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 17, 2013 @11:39AM (#43754011)

    I work for a geoscience company, this isn't new technology just a refinement or techniques already in use

    • by Anonymous Coward

      I work for a geoscience company, this isn't new technology just a refinement or techniques already in use

      Isn't that how it always works? Refine something, paste a new buzz-word to it, and Profit! ?

    • Are there companies offering grav/mag drones? I've had surveys delayed months due to the pilot being unavailable.
    • Yeah. Like Cessna 172s. I'm not sure why this is so different from flying around in a single engine prop plane - the kind you can rent for a couple of hundred per hour. Or buy for a small multiple of a drone cost. And it comes with a pilot so you don't have to worry (too much) about crashing.

  • Dream job (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Nidi62 ( 1525137 ) on Friday May 17, 2013 @11:41AM (#43754033)

    throwing dynamite from snowmobiles when they look for oil

    Damn, I should have been a geologist.

    • throwing dynamite from snowmobiles when they look for oil

      Damn, I should have been a geologist.

      "What's all that dynamite for?"

      "Who cares? it makes a real fucking cool boom..."

    • You walk into an AutoZone looking for a case of 10W50 with a lit stick of dynamite and the clerks will help you out pretty damn fast.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      I wanted to be a geologist because i think rocks are cool.

      The program meant taking - almost majoring in all: chemistry, physics, math, earth science (geology).

      Good god! 15+ course hours of ALL lab science for 4 years!

      When physicians bitch about their training, I just smile to myself and think of the geologists.

      Please, a year of calculus, physics, chemistry, organic chem and biology to get into med school? That's it? And then to study what's basically sr. level science for a year or two and then learning

    • by antdude ( 79039 )

      It's not too late. :)

  • by tocsy ( 2489832 ) on Friday May 17, 2013 @11:52AM (#43754209)

    Mediocre summary as usual, but TFA was really well written and interesting!

  • by perpenso ( 1613749 ) on Friday May 17, 2013 @11:55AM (#43754263)
    Aerial mapping is not new. The only thing that has changed is that the pilot is now remote. Is every instance of data acquisition from an aerial platform where the pilot becomes remote some sort of breaking news event?
    • by Anonymous Coward

      Pornographers shooting scenes from the air using DRONE technology!

    • Well, the mapping is getting smarter, cheaper and faster. The technology is not coming soon to the USA due to FAA and industrial military complex roadblocks. This is perfect for the rest of the world. As ever Europe leads the way in aviation.
  • program the drones to look for big red trucks with "Halliburton" signs?
  • I have no problem with drones flying around uninhabited border areas looking for stuff. Fly 'em around the US national parks to look for poachers or campers in trouble, patrol the borders of Canada and Mexico, monitor oil pipelines - whatever.

    I have a major problem with them flying around inhabited areas. The RF spectrum is relatively clean out in the boonies. When you get into inhabited, and especially industrial areas, it gets downright vicious. You have high tension power lines, cell towers, microwave re

    • Norway's mostly uninhabited anyway, so it shouldn't be a problem in this case.

    • by mikael ( 484 )

      Makes me want to see what the RF spectrum of a city would look like from street view levels - I'm imagining seeing all the buildings in X-rays and all the noise sources looking like sparklers reflected by the steel frames, walls and signs.

  • Drone baby drone? Yeah yeah, it's Norway and not the US...

A committee takes root and grows, it flowers, wilts and dies, scattering the seed from which other committees will bloom. -- Parkinson

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