Indirect geophysical characterization of geohazards in mantled karst environments in the Ebro Basin

Karst hazards in the central Ebro Basin are related to subsidence and collapses owing to evaporitic rocks located several tens of metres below the surface. In this type of karst (mantle karst) cavities propagate upwards through a non-soluble rock, in this case Quaternary alluvial deposits. The typical geological series comprises a heterogeneous alluvial unit underlain by a soluble, mainly gypsiferous, substratum and several water tables that usually present high conductivity variations. The highest concentration of karstic evidence is identified along the fluvial flood plain of the Ebro River where clayey deposits dominate at the surface. These boundary conditions produce complex environments for the evaluation of geophysical data related to i) karst activity, ii) the presence of cavities below the water table and within the substratum and iii) the variable sedimentary architecture of fluvial deposits. During the past ten years different geophysical techniques have been used in order to characterize karst hazards in the Central Ebro Basin. These experiences have enabled the evaluation resolution, discrimination characterization and finding of karstic evidence using different approaches. The main success in the application of these geophysical techniques has been the quantification of karst hazards from the record of subsidence processes through changes in density, magnetic susceptibility, apparent conductivity and structure of the alluvial deposits. However, the identification of cavities below the alluvial series still represents a serious handicap wing to nonunivocal interpretations and low resolution or penetration of geophysical techniques.