b'Geophysics in the surveysNewsGeological Survey of Western Australia: Regional geophysical data acquisition in GSWA 202223AusAEMWAWestern Australia now boasts complete AusAEM 20 km coverage over the entire State. Additional funding from the Western Australian Governments Exploration Incentive Scheme (EIS) enabled the extension of Geoscience Australias (GA) Exploring for the Future AusAEM Western Resources Corridor survey to include the outstanding areas in the Kimberley and in the far east of the State (Figure. 1). The data from these surveys are scheduled for release in the first quarter of 2023 (contact:David.HOWARD@dmirs.wa.gov.au).Deep-crustal and high-resolution 2D seismic traversesCurrently, Western Australia has an aggregate coverage of 7326 line-km of active seismic transects as shown in Figure 2, which also illustrates the impact of EIS funding on the rate of acquisition. In the 17 years between 1988 and 2005, a total of 2483 km of data was acquired, mostly funded by GA (and its antecedents). With the contribution ofFigure 1.Location of AusAEM survey areas in Western Australia. Numbers refer to dataset registration EIS funding, in the nine years from 2010numbers in MAGIX data repository.to 2019 GSWA and GA acquired a total of 4843 km of datatwice the numberpattern spaced at 40 km intervals. Thepassive seismic mapping at an optimal of kilometres in half the time. GSWA isseismometers will be relocated annuallylevel of station spacing across Western now expanding the number of transectsover nine regional areas (Figure3) toAustralia. These stations will continuously in key litho-structural areas to improveprovide state-wide coverage over a periodrecord seismic data for one year before our understanding of the major crustalof 10 years. The programme is a majorwholesale migration north and east structures in the State. logistical undertaking, representing onefor the second phase. Planning for the of the largest of its type anywhere in thesecond deployment area will begin with Tender requests have been issued forworld, and has been designed to providecultural heritage surveys. All sites will new deep crustal seismic surveys in the southwest and midwest regions of WA, and for a high-resolution survey along two lines near the Telfer and Nifty deposits in the Paterson region (Figure 2). Acquisition in the Paterson is expected to occur in June or July 2023. The southwest and midwest traverses may begin later in the year after final line selection is completed (contact: David.HOWARD@dmirs.wa.gov.au).WA arrayThe WA array programme of passive seismic data acquisition across Western Australia began in 2022 with a huge installation effort in NovemberDecember 2022. There are now 160 broadband seismic stations installedFigure 2.Western Australia seismic transects and location of candidate lines for proposed 202324 seismic across WAs southwest arranged in a gridtraverses.33 PREVIEW FEBRUARY 2023'