Communications at Large …

By CHAUNCEY ROSS chauncey@indianagazette.net The Indiana Gazette |

A Texas-based subsurface resource exploration firm has about three dozen workers on a project in Indiana County.

In short, they’re trying to find pockets of natural gas in the Marcellus shale.

The workers have been laying hundreds of feet of wire along roads in three or four locations in the county, and then attaching sensing devices called geophones to the wires, according to Norm Budnick, of Dawson Geophysical Company of Midland, Texas.

Some of the workers were testing Tuesday along the Sample Run Hill section of Route 286 in Cherryhill Township.

Once the wires are laid and the sensors attached, Dawson’s trucks use a process called “Vibroseis” technology to find what’s underground.

“They set a pad down on the road and shake or vibrate for 10 to 12 seconds, sending high-frequency sound waves into the earth,” Budnick said. “The wire parked alongside the road is connected to a recording truck, where we map the substructure of the earth of gas deposits.”

Although looking for Marcellus deposits, the process could show where other underground resources might lie.

“The information then is sent to a processing center, the data is processed and sent to the client for interpretation,” Budnick said. He declined to identify the drilling company that has contracted Dawson Geophysical for the project.

The company has 35 to 40 people at work in Indiana County and should complete the exploration by the weekend, if weather allows.

Budnick said the crews can map along five to seven miles of road in a day.

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