Surface-wave Profiling for Sinkhole Hazard Assessment Along the Eastern Dead Sea Shoreline, Ghor Al–Haditha, Jordan

The surface-wave profiling method has been carried out for the estimation of subsurface shear-wave velocities at the Ghor Al-Haditha sinkholes area, in Jordan. Roll along acquisition and dispersion stacking were used to achieve multi-modal dispersion measurements along two profiles. The estimated dispersion showed strong lateral variations, apparently correlated with sinkholes. Preliminary blind inversion results confirmed these correlations: low shear-wave velocity anomalies were noticed in the vicinity of existing sinkholes and in the currently most active collapsing zone. Such anomalies could be explained by a systematic decompaction of shallow sediment layers, associated to the sinkhole development process.