Fort McPherson (Aug 15/03) - "We'll take this data to a geophysist and they'll convert that into a magnetic map of the area," says Captain Denys Lebrun, who is doing a low-level geological survey, mapping the magnetics of the earth from a Piper Navajo.

The data will be made available to prospectors, explorers and other industries who might want to work in the area.

"Depending on what they're looking for, that data might be very valuable to them," he said. "If they are looking for kimberlite pipes or oil fields or rock structures that might indicate that certain minerals might be in that particular area."

"It's all in the interpretation."

30 to 40 years ago

"The instrumentation was quite crude back then, compared with what we can do now," he said. "You can get a lot more detail now and gives them a much better opportunity to discover something."

Instruments called "magnetometers" make images of the ground they are flying over and are stitched together to map the whole area.

"All it is, is mapping the magnetic signature of the Earth that you're flying over," he said. "There is no impulse going into the ground or anything, you're just flying over, measuring what's naturally there."

Any changes, fluctuations or anomalies in the magnetic pull of the earth is recorded by the magnetometer and stored on a computer.

The Geological Survey of Canada will sell the magnetic maps to whomever wants to explore the area.

"They'll probably spend about a year processing that data and then release that map to the public," he said.

They are mapping the area south of Fort McPherson and expect to cover 265 kilometres long by 60 kilometres wide.