Survey will give digital map of earth´s crust

CAP Blanc, located in the municipality of Llucmajor, has been the site chosen to carry out an ambitious study on the structure and physical properties of the rocks. The aim is to be able to extract sonic images to create a digital map of the earth's crust. Once reliable data is compiled and applied on a regional and world scale, it will be a major step forward in understanding the reaction and behaviour of liquids in the subsoil (water, oil). This ambitious project which comprises four phases, is being directed by the geologist Jerome Kenter from Vrije University in Amsterdam who is being assisted by other universities such as Delft (also in the Netherlands), and the University of the Balearics with the collaboration of Lluis Pomar, director of the department of Earth Sciences. Students from Italy, Spain and Greece are also participating.
The first phase took place last year when a validity study was carried out on the selected site; the second phase is currently in operation and will be ongoing until July. It includes the drilling of bore holes and sounding investigations being made to obtain samples of rock. The third phase will be carried out with the collaboration of Aliance, the hydrology project team from the European Union, also for the extraction of rock samples but this time from the sea. In the fourth phase, a study will be made of a section of the highway in the area. Kenter indicated that “in one year we will be finished, but it has to be remembered that apart from the field work, work has to be carried out in the laboratory to analyse the data collected. This alone will take up space on some 300 CD Roms.” “We can reconstruct a photograph of the subsoil where there is difficult calibration by using a sonic wave in conjunction with a radiofusion system. This will enable us to build up a picture of the physical changes. The objective is to understand the calibration between the geology and the physical image in the system in three dimensions. We make sounding investigations and drill bore holes to a depth of 100 metres obtaining samples which will be studied later.”. Kenter commented that using the results of the study, we will be able to better understand the system and behavious of water in the subsoil of Majorca - its speed, direction and volume, facilitating a more efficient us of this priceless resource. The project is being funded by oil industries and water companies. A crucial element in this project is the actual site chosen, which thanks to its cliffs, allows visual contact with the various layers of the subsoil. Some members of the team scale down the cliffs to obtain samples.