Mar 12
15
NEW Concrete Scanning GPR Systems
It seems the trend in ground penetrating radar concrete scanning systems is to go smaller, lighter and more portable. These are all positive benefits for these new smaller systems. However, these benefits may come with a few compromises.
The new “Mini” concrete scanning GPR systems featured in this blog are from two leading GPR system manufacturers Sensors & Software and GSSI. We have not tested these systems and the information here is what we have deciphered from the manufacturer’s marketing material and news releases.
From our preliminary observation the primary compromise appears to be a smaller screen size, from both companies, compared to their full sized brothers. Trying to identify small or faint targets on a compressed screen size could potentially be a bit of a challenge. The good news is, both of these new systems have maintained the great depth of penetration that is available in their respective full sized systems.
The Conquest SL has an 8″ (20.3cm) screen size compared to the 15″ (38cm) screen in the full size Conquest. On the up side the new Conquest SL can run on battery power or AC. I’m glad to see they have incorporated the “Power Cable Detection” capability feature, available in the full sized Conquest, into this new system. We use this feature extensively to locate “Live” power conduits in concrete slabs.
For more information visit Sensors & Software web site at www.sensoft.ca.
.
The StructureScan Mini HR has a 5.7″ (14.4cm) screen size compared to the 8.4″ (21.3cm) screen in the full size StructureScan Standard. The great thing about this new Mini is the video display is built into the antenna and not tethered by cables to a separate unit.
For more information visit the GSSI web site at www.geophysical.com.
In technology everything is a trade off. You will have to decide for yourself if you are willing to trade off larger screens and possibly some other features incorporated in the standard concrete imaging systems for these smaller, lighter and more portable minis.
Click here for more information about Concrete Scanning.
Posted in New GPR Products by .
A potential problem with voids under a runway was confirmed after a Boeing 737 dropped through the concrete taxiway at the Mid Delta Regional Airport in Mississippi. It was reported the airplane sustained approximately $1.5 million in damages (OUCH!).
Ground penetrating radar was used to map any potential voids near the storm drain which crosses under a runway and a taxiway. These subject areas were chosen because geologists speculated the previous spring’s flooding of the nearby Mississippi River followed by current drought conditions may have caused the voids.
A geophysical firm based in Clinton, MS analyzed the GPR data and mapped the location of the void at a 40-45 cm depth slice and the pipe at a 95-100 cm depth slice beneath the void as shown in the images below.
It is anticipated additional GPR surveys at the airport will be conducted in other areas of the airport to determine what caused the voids and if there may be any additional voids present.
Subsurface voids under roadways can cause significant damage to property and possible injury or death to those traveling on those surfaces when they collapse. Fortunately this time the collapsed runway only resulted in a very expensive repair to the aircraft.
(Information and pictures originally published by Sensors & Software in Subsurface Views newsletter.)
Jan 12
16
2012 GPR Conferences and Symposiums
As a reference I have put together a list of upcoming 2012 conferences and symposiums related to ground penetrating radar technology. There is a brief description and a link to their web sites for more information.
.
Symposium on the Application of Geophysics to
Engineering and Environmental Problems (SAGEEP)
Date: March 25-29, 2012
Location: Tucson, AZ, USA
Web site: www.eegs.org
SAGEEP provides this symposium to geophysicists, engineers and geoscientists as an opportunity to meet and discuss near-surface applications of geophysics and learn about recent developments in near-surface geophysics. This symposium is organized by the Environmental & Engineering Geophysical Society (EEGS).
.
European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2012
Date: April 22-27, 2012
Location: Vienna, Austria
Web site: www.egu2012.eu
The EGU General Assembly will bring together geoscientists from all over the world covering all disciplines of the Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences to provide a forum where they can present their work and discuss their ideas with experts in all fields of geosciences. The conference will include a session entitled “Civil Engineering Applications of Ground Penetrating Radar”. This session promises to be a forum for discussion and a wide exchange of experiences and results related to the Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) use in civil engineering problems.
.
14th International Conference on Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR 2012)
Date: June 4-8, 2012
Location: Shanghai, China
Web site: www.gpr2012.org:81
The ground penetrating radar (GPR) International Advisory Committee will highlight the most recent technical advancements and case studies on ground penetrating radar for engineers, scientists, and all kinds of end users. The Department of Geotechnical Engineering and the School of Ocean & Earth Sciences of Tongji University will be the host of this year’s conference.
.
NDT in Canada 2012 Conference
Date: June 18-21, 2012
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Web site: www.cinde.ca
The Canadian Institute for NDE (CINDE) is organizing the NDT in Canada Conference and 4th International CANDU in-service Inspection Workshop for members and the Non-Destructive Testing community at large.
.
International Technical Workshop “REmote Sensing Techniques
in Archaeological Research” (RESTAR)
Date: September 21-29, 2012
Location: Rethymno, Crete, Greece
Web site: www.ims.forth.gr
This conference and workshops is focused at introducing students, researchers and professionals to the capabilities of ground and satellite based remote sensing techniques, including ground penetrating radar, in context of an archaeological survey. The workshop is organized by the Laboratory of Geophysical – Satellite Remote Sensing and Archaeo-environment of the Institute for Mediterranean Studies / Foundation for Research and Technology, Hellas (F.O.R.T.H.).
Posted in Trade Shows & Conferences by .
With the use of secret military satellite imagery and ground penetrating radar scientists are claiming to have found pieces of Noah’s Ark buried under ice near the peak of Mt. Ararat in Turkey. Two large sections of Noah’s ark are claimed, by Daniel McGivern and his team, to be resting about 350 feet below the peak of the mountain.
Digital Globe via Space.com: Satellite imagery of Turkey's Mount Ararat highlights an object within a red circle, with blue arrows indicating possible down slope movement. The imagery was captured by Digital Globe and made available through Shamrock-The Trinity Corp.
With the help of ground penetrating radar they discovered a large piece (24 feet x 123 feet long) embedded in glacial ice just 23 feet at one end below the surface and down to over 100 feet at the other end. A second large section has been reported in a glacier nearby.
Here is a GPR 3D Graphical Simulation of the discovered piece.
This discovery is completely based on imaging technology and will most likely remain buried under the ice. As McGivern explained, “There’s a huge problem with getting down to it, because of the fact that you can’t melt the ice”.
For more information about this topic visit Noah’s Ark Found (Daniel McGivern) web site.
Posted in Archaeology by .
Roman Amphitheatre Found In England
A large Roman Amphitheatre has been discovered buried below the summit of Studforth Hill outside of Aldborough village in Yorkshire England. The team of researchers from Cambridge University was led by a local woman who was told about the legend of a Roman amphitheatre by her grandfather. Until this discovery the local stories of an ancient amphitheatre have been long dismissed as legend.
This breakthrough discovery was possible because of today’s GPR technologies. Ground Penetrating Radar was used to scan more than a square mile of pastures in a grid format. After which the locals were informed in a packed meeting that the amphitheatre had finally been tracked down.
Many ruins have been discovered around Yorkshire confirming this area was well settled by Romans. Artwork was discovered in some of the ruins suggesting cultured inhabitants. Previous finds by researchers suggest other theatres may be close by. The scientists believe this Roman Amphitheatre is just part of a complex which may include a sports arena.
The next step is for the researchers to find funding and gain permission to excavate this site to complete a full survey. As they uncover more secrets there may be proof that the site was once part of a bustling Roman entertainment complex.
Roman Gladiator School Found In Austria
An international team from the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology (LBI-ArchPro), together with the Archaeological Park Carnuntum, using state-of-the-art ground penetrating radar devices discovered a Roman Gladiator School 20 km east of Vienna. The research team used a multi-antenna ground penetrating radar attached to a tractor to collect the subsurface data.
The use of ground penetrating radar has provided sufficient quality data of the subsurface structures for the researchers to use 3D modeling to recreate the 2,800 square meter (3,350 square yard) compound. From this data they were able to identify the school buildings arranged around an inner court with a circular training area with wooden stands for spectators.
The archaeologists believe that they have also located the gladiators’ cemetery, immediately behind a building associated with large grave monuments, stone sarcophagi and other, simpler, graves. This newly discovered gladiator school is near a previously excavated amphitheatre of the civilian city of Carnuntum. This amphitheatre is said to have held around 13,000 spectators and contemporary inscriptions claimed that it was the fourth largest amphitheatre in the Roman Empire.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IZ99v14aaU&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
It’s exciting to find stories where ground penetrating radar is being used today to uncover history and confirm what was once considered to be a myth handed down by generations.
Posted in Archaeology by .
Our company has surveyed many cemeteries to map grave sites. Usually this was to construct an accurate site plan of marked and unmarked grave sites and available plots. However, last year we were contracted to conduct a ground penetrating radar survey at a cemetery near Chicago to assist in pending legal proceedings. We waited to publish this post till the case in the courts was concluded.
This started as a result of a raid on the Burr Oak Cemetery. Investigators found chunks of burial vaults, pieces of pine boxes that had been used as caskets decades ago, and even a skeleton wearing a suit and tie inside an empty burial vault, with no casket in sight. The remains included two pieces of skull fragments and part of a femur bone, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office said.
In July 2009, authorities charged 4 Burr Oak Cemetery employees with digging up human remains from graves for resale, and dumping the remains elsewhere in the cemetery. All remain free on bond while awaiting trial on charges of dismembering a human body, a Class X felony, the sheriff’s office said.
“There are more people listed as being buried in the cemetery than can physically be buried based on space,” Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart told NBC Chicago March 21. Dart figures there might be the remains of 300 to 600 people – taken from graves, allegedly so they could be re-sold, and scattered in an area where new owners want to create new plots.
The arrests made international headlines and prompted thousands of people to visit the historic black cemetery to try to determine if their loved ones were among those graves that were disturbed.
An archaeological research firm was appointed last year by a bankruptcy court judge who is overseeing the possible sale of the Alsip cemetery. They were tasked with determining whether it would be feasible for the 5.9 acres known as “Crime Scene A” to ever be used by new owners to conduct burials or even build a mausoleum there.
“Crime Scene A” had been targeted as a site for new burials, because it was thought to be the only part of the cemetery where bodies had not been buried.
Global GPR Services was contracted to scan this area using ground penetrating radar to locate any potential subsurface anomalies. After analyzing the data collected from this survey we identified the location of numerous potential target locations.
According to a released statement from Sheriff Dart’s office, radar work done by Global GPR Services found additional locations with deeply buried objects, some of which were substantial in size. That led to digging as far as eight feet deep and more remains being found at every level.
Finally on July 8, 2011, two years to the day after the grave reselling scandal blew open, Carolyn Towns, the ex-Burr Oak Cemetery director pleaded guilty. She blamed a gambling addiction and accepted a 12-year prison sentence.
Posted in Cemetery Mapping Forensic Locating Gravesite Locating by .
Jul 11
6
GPR Used To Help Find Mona Lisa!
An archaeology team lead by Professor Silvano Vinceti in Florence, Italy, are searching for the remains of a woman thought to be the model who sat for Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa”. This mystery woman is believed to be Lisa Gherardini.
After 2 weeks of surveying the Ground Penetrating Radar crew found the location of what may be the mystery crypt of Mona Lisa’s model. The crypt was found under the floor of the St Ursula convent after a foot of modern concrete was removed and unearthed a layer of ancient, 35 inch wide bricks.
Researchers dig into underground tombs inside the Convent of St. Ursula, in Florence, Italy. Researchers are looking for the remains of Renaissance woman Lisa Gherardini, believed to have posed for Leonardo Da Vinci's painting "Mona Lisa". Picture: AP / Fabrizio Giovannozzi
Professor Vinceti said: “We are roughly where the altar stood and we have found not one crypt but two, one is older than the other and we believe that one of them is that of Lisa Gherardini. The excavation team revealed that it had unearthed a female-sized skull in a crypt under the floor of the convent.
The aim of the dig is to find Mona Lisa’s remains and compare her DNA with that of two her children buried in Florence’s Santissima Annunziata church. If the scientists can confirm the skull belongs to the model, forensic artists will then attempt to reconstruct her face to see how it compares to the 500-year-old version painted by da Vinci and perhaps solve the riddle of the Mona Lisa’s enigmatic smile in the process.
Posted in Archaeology Cemetery Mapping Unique GPR Applications by .
Last Thursday a subsurface investigation, by a joint team of 16 Koreans and 10 Americans, began to locate drums of Agent Orange allegedly buried at Camp Carroll U.S. military base in South Korea. This started after decades of silence and suffering that Steve House links to exposure to the dangerous herbicide in 1978 when he helped bury this toxic agent. Two other former soldiers who served with House said in interviews that they buried an estimated 250 drums.
The team is using ground-penetrating radar (GPR) to locate drums of toxic chemicals in suspected locations and is taking groundwater samples to check for water contamination. They will focus their investigation in the vicinity of the helipad and two other locations, that soldiers called “Voodoo Land”, where allegedly hundreds of drums were buried. Plans are to complete the investigation on the helipad by June 21st.
House claims that soldiers at Camp Carroll took a large number of rusted 55-gallon drums stamped with the words “Agent Compound Orange” from the restricted warehouse and carried them to a deep ditch the length of a soccer field. “This is a burden I’ve carried around for 35 years,” House said in a phone interview with AP from his home in Arizona. “It’s bugging the hell out of me. I don’t want to take this to my grave.”
It’s been our experience that the ground penetrating radar survey will be able to confirm if the drums are buried in these areas. However, it will take extensive testing of soil and water samples in this and surrounding areas to determine the extent of the damage to the local environment.
Posted in Enironmental Assessment Survey Underground Storage Tank Locating by .