Full text loading...
-
Potential of Ground-penetrating Radar for Imaging Active Layer and Ice Wedges in Permafrost Areas
- Publisher: European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers
- Source: Conference Proceedings, 23rd European Meeting of Environmental and Engineering Geophysics, Sep 2017, Volume 2017, p.1 - 5
Abstract
Ice wedges are prominent phenomena of permafrost landscapes and cause a characteristic polygonal patterned ground. However, the existence of ice bodies in the subsurface is not always delineable based on surface data. Detection and imaging of these ice bodies is of interest to identify regions of increased subsidence potential and for scientific field work such as drilling programs. We demonstrate for two synthetic datasets of increasing complexity, that ground-penetrating radar can be used to determine ice wedge structures and to image their lateral extension. However, a structural imaging of complex ice-wedge geometries (i.e., steep dipping flanks) is beyond the potential of typical acquisition-strategies (surface-based, common-offset). While for simple wedge models synthetic data can be used to delineate information about the wedge geometry, this is not suitable for our more realistic synthetic data. However, for surface-based data acquisition more sophisticated techniques such as multi-offset-strategies may be a solution.