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# System prepended metadata

title: Electrical Resistivity Summary

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tags: geol 420 website page
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# Electrical Resistivity Summary
Here we collect together a list of key ideas you should be thinking about:

- Why can sending electrical current into the ground be useful *at all* to a geologist?
- Why do you we keep talking about *resistivity*, is that really something different than resistance? Why don't we do *electrical resistance* surveys?
- How do you make a single electrical resistivity measurement?
- How do you increase resolution vertically or laterally?
- How is *resistance* converted to *resistivity* in our surveys?
- What are the basic electrical resistivity array styles? What are their relative advantages and disadvantages? i.e. why/when would you use one over another? (this includes 1D vs 2D vs 3D)
- What is a case where electrical resistivity doesn't work?
- How deep can you interrogate the subsurface?
- What are mechanism(s) by which electrical current is conducted through the subsurface?

