The Radiometric Map of Australia

Geoscience Australia and the Australian State and Territory Geological Surveys have systematically surveyed most of the Australian continent over the past 40 years using airborne gamma-ray spectrometry to map potassium, uranium and thorium elemental concentrations at the Earth’s surface. However, the individual surveys that comprise the national gamma-ray spectrometric radioelement database are not all registered to the same datum. This limits the usefulness of the database as it is not possible to easily combine surveys into regional compilations or make accurate comparisons between radiometric signatures in different survey areas. To solve these problems, Geoscience Australia has undertaken an Australia-Wide Airborne Geophysical Survey (AWAGS), funded under the Australian Government’s Onshore Energy Security Program, to serve as a radioelement baseline for all current and future airborne gamma-ray spectrometric surveys in Australia. The AWAGS survey has been back-calibrated to the International Atomic E...