Electromagnetic Measurements for Monitoring Molybdenum Contamination in Near-Surface Survey

Abstract

We carried out electromagnetic measurements in the vicinity of the near surface molybdenum contamination observed in the "Blue Lagoon" plum located in the north-east of Hungary. The aim of the investigation was to find the origin of the molybdenum pollution, situated in the area, which could be a container or other infrastructure leading to the source of contamination. The field study was conducted in two stages. In the first phase, we gathered electromagnetic data by using GEM-2 type equipment. We derived conductivity and susceptibility maps for each acquired frequency from the electromagnetic data. In the second stage of the field study, GPR data were obtained from 50 MHZ and 450 MHz antennas. In the GPR measurements, we gathered detailed information from GPR depth slices from very shallow depth ranges to deeper parts of the investigated area (from 50cm to 8 m depths). In all results from the measurements executed by the GEM-2 and (50 MHZ and 450 MHz) GPR equipment, there are several clear anomalies are observed in the data for distribution of molybdenum contamination. Although there are several contaminated zones observed, no clear evidence of the source of contamination was found in the vicinity of the molybdenum pollution peak.