Patent ID: 8483965
Filing Date: 2013-07-09
Classification: G01V

Abstract:
1. A method for the detection and categorization of hydrocarbon deposits in subsurface formations comprising: traversing a plurality of flight lines over terrain to be surveyed for establishing a two-dimensional grid over the terrain which corresponds to the subsurface formations therebelow; collecting air samples along the flight lines; counting hydrocarbon ions present in the collected air samples for each of a plurality of location co-ordinates along the flight lines for establishing at least one raw data set of the hydrocarbon ion count at each of the plurality of location co-ordinates; isolating amplitude anomalies from the at least one raw data set for establishing at least a first residual data set of data points, each data point being indicative of the hydrocarbon intensity at each of the plurality of location co-ordinates in the two-dimensional grid; and using at least one data processing unit,