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.
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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).
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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 .
Mar 11
16
GPR Geophysical Survey on SKIS
We recently conducted a geophysical survey which initially presented quite a challenge. The project scope was to conduct a GPR geophysical survey of a 700 acre property located near Kitchener, Ontario Canada in the middle of WINTER!
The GPR equipment used for this project was a Sensors & Software Pulse EKKO Pro with a 50 MHz antenna and a GPS unit. The hardware had no problem withstanding the brutal winter conditions. The challenge was in how to move the equipment over 700 acres of deep snow to collect the GPR data.
As the old saying goes… necessity is the mother of invention. We considered many options such as mounting the antennas to a cart but the wheels would get stuck in the snow. Even considered (for about a half a second) manually carrying the GPR equipment. But quickly realized that we would probably not see our technicians till the spring when they finally thawed out.
So we designed a set of skis that could be towed behind an ARGO ATV. These skis had to be 8’ in length in order to mount the 50 MHz antennas and a support for an odometer wheel that was connected to the ground penetrating radar unit and the GPS unit. However, the biggest challenge was finding a plastic material to manufacture the skis from that was hard enough to handle the friction and take the wear and tear of running over rocks, stumps and other debris.
After some experimentation we came up with the proper design and materials to manufacture the perfect solution as seen in the video below that was shot at the project site with a cell phone. In fact this system worked so well we are now in the process of bringing this product to the GPR aftermarket as an accessory that can be used for various applications.
For more information about our Geophysical Survey services visit our web site or contact Global GPR Services toll free at (888) 801-4477.
Posted in Geophysical Survey New GPR Products Unique GPR Applications by .
Feb 11
7
GPR Rescue Radar
Looks like Sensor’s & Software have done it again! In last month’s Subsurface Views, the company’s newsletter, they announced another ground penetrating radar system with life saving potential. Rescue Radar, as it’s being called, can help locate buried victims of earthquakes, avalanches or building collapses.
You are probably aware that ground penetrating radar can penetrate through soil, rubble, rock and snow. However, to locate a human below all this debris is very difficult unless they are moving. This system can detect movement as subtle as a victim breathing. Since breathing and or even heart beats have very regular patterns, varying levels of motion discrimination can be used to infer human life-like activity.
Rescue Radar consists of a sensor and a computer display which are connected by a wireless link. The reason for using a wireless link is to eliminate potential interference from moving cables and operator movement.
Operating the Rescue Radar is relatively simple. The sensor is placed at a monitoring point and this unit emits GPR pulses into the ground or debris and measures any returned reflections. The operator can then observe the response on the remote computer display which uses proprietary software.
The system analyzes any movement for life-like patterns and highlights positive indicators and the distance & range to any detected movement. All of these motion observations are recorded and can be replayed or saved if needed.
The sensor illuminates a 90 degree cone subsurface. Exploration depth can vary from a meter or two in high-loss environments like rock, building materials and other debris to more than 10 meters in highly transparent materials like snow. While the company admits GPR is not a “silver bullet” but when used properly in conjunction with other tools there is a real potential to save lives.
Our company uses Sensor & Software GPR equipment for various commercial applications such as subsurface utility locating and concrete imaging. I’ve always been impressed with the quality and reliability of these commercial products. But I have to admit, I’m even more impressed that this company has spent their resources and money to develop a product, which has a fairly limited market, which can actually save lives.
Posted in Forensic Locating New GPR Products Unique GPR Applications by .
This is a post about some interesting and alarming information I found recently in an article in “Sensors & Software Subsurface Views” which I thought our readers would be interest in. It’s about a potential Time Bomb under German soil.
In 1944 and 1945 many German cities were bombed by the allies. Experts estimate that 15% of these bombs did not detonate. Here’s the alarming part… this means there could be 100,000 bombs still lying undetected somewhere in the ground.
Geophysical surveys are routinely carried out before construction works in these heavily-bombed areas in Germany. Although these surveys are surprisingly not required by German law, they are performed for the protection of the construction workers and to avoid problems with insurance.
Since many constructions sites contain linear iron objects (old pipelines, fences, reinforced concrete buildings, etc.) detections with ferrous locators is not possible. This is why in this case Sensors & Software’s Noggin ground penetrating radar was used.
A recent Noggin GPR survey was conducted on a site where a BMW fabrication plant stood during WWII. The GPR survey located a 1000 lb US demolition bomb at a shallow depth. Careful uncovering of the bomb revealed that it had one nose and one tail pistol still functioning. It was defused and removed from the site. Soon after this survey two more bombs were found!
Posted in Unexploded Ordnance Detecting (UXO) Unique GPR Applications by .