Utilizing catchment information to provide insights into regional geochemistry

Drainage basins capture erosion and sediments from throughout a geographical region. Understanding these catchments can provide insights into mineral exploration and surface processes of a given area. By utilizing GIS software and open-source digital elevation models (DEM), we can easily determine a regional catchment to provide a target region to examine regional geochemistry. In MinersAI, we have a compiled set of geochemical samples of Argentina (Figure 1).

By uploading catchments calculated from USGS DEMs in QGIS, we can highlight regions of interest by simply uploading polygons of catchments (Figure 2).

Here, we look into catchments in the northern region of the Jujuy Province (Figure 3), examining lead concentrations through a heat map (Figure 4 and 5).

The yellow regions indicate high lead concentrations for the given region. By expanding to a nearby catchment, we can see how different regions correlate and analyze the overall lead patterns in spatial context. Drainage basins can enable further understanding beyond mineral exploration. Geochemical information can provide insights into water chemistry and how surface processes can affect the environment.