REVIEW ARTICLE

Muon Geotomography: Selected Case Studies

This issue reports the findings of a Royal Society Theo Murphy meeting on cosmic-ray muography with contributions from the leading research groups and commercial companies in the field. Cosmic-ray muography is one of the fastest growing fields in applied physics research. Ideon CTO Doug Schouten’s article addresses how muon attenuation in matter can be used to infer the average material density along the path length of muons underground. By mapping the intensity of cosmic ray muons with an underground sensor, a radiographic image of the overburden above the sensor can be derived. Multiple such images can be combined to reconstruct a three-dimensional density model of the subsurface. The article summarizes selected case studies in applying muon tomography to mineral exploration.