MagMapper!
Utilities
Free · Designed for iPad. Not verified for macOS.
MagMapper: Locate Abandoned Well Casings with Your Smartphone
In the United States, hundreds of thousands of oil and gas wells have been abandoned or “orphaned”. Locating these wells is the first step towards properly plugging them, but traditional geophysics survey equipment is expensive and requires specific training to use.
MagMapper puts well-detection technology in your pocket. With a simple walking survey, MagMapper utilizes the magnetometer built into your phone to create a magnetic anomaly map. With no additional hardware you can detect buried well casings.
How it Works
Walk a grid pattern over the desired survey area with the MagMapper app running. The app logs magnetometer readings and GPS position, then processes that data into a magnetic intensity map. Steel well casings create distinctive magnetic anomalies allowing users to pinpoint well locations from the walking survey.
Who it’s for
State and Federal agencies conducting field surveys and orphaned well inventories
Landowners looking for undocumented wells on their property
Environmental Research and Field Technicians
Citizen Scientists!
Key Features
Real-time magnetic field visualization
GPS tagged survey data for mapping
Exportable survey data for further analysis (CSV file)
Gamification
Leaderboard: Compare your contributions with other citizens. Climb the leaderboard by completing quality surveys
Achievements & Badges- Earn badges for milestones like completing your first survey, finding anomalies, or becoming a top contributor.
Activity Scoring- Your activity score reflects both the quantity and quality of your surveys. Stay active to maintain your ranking!
MagMapper has been compared against research grade magnetometer equipment, including helicopter and ground-based magnetometer surveys to evaluate detection accuracy and appropriate survey line spacing.
The MagMapper project is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (CATALOG program)
MagMapper is developed by the CIRES MagMapper team at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Ratings & Reviews
- This app hasn’t received enough ratings or reviews to display an overview.
* Small bug fix
The developer, University of Colorado Boulder, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Linked to You
The following data may be collected and linked to your identity:
- Location
- User Content
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
Information
- Seller
- University of Colorado Boulder
- Size
- 151.2 MB
- Category
- Utilities
- Compatibility
Requires iOS 17.6 or later.
- iPhone
Requires iOS 17.6 or later. - iPad
Requires iPadOS 17.6 or later. - Mac
Requires macOS 14.6 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later. - Apple Vision
Requires visionOS 1.3 or later.
- iPhone
- Languages
- English
- Age Rating
4+
- 4+
- Contains
User-Generated Content
- Copyright
- © 2026 University of Colorado Boulder