Patent ID: 8483965

Claim:
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, mapping the at least first residual data set on the two-dimensional grid; establishing at least a first-threshold hydrocarbon intensity; identifying data points relatably adjacent one another within the two-dimensional grid and having intensities equal to the first-threshold hydrocarbon intensity; associating such equal-intensity data points to form at least a first, first-threshold footprint which encompasses the equal-intensity data points and any greater-intensity data points having intensities greater than the first-threshold hydrocarbon intensity; and superimposing the at least a first, first-threshold footprint over a geological map of the subsurface formation within the terrain surveyed to readily identify at least the location, size and shape of the hydrocarbon deposits in the subsurface formation beneath the first, first-threshold footprint.