The application of ground penetrating radar in Israel: selected case histories

Radar technology has been used in Israel for the past two years by the Institute for Petroleum Research and Geophysics (IPRG) for many applications such as civil engineering, archaeology, infrastructure, environmental problems and geology. For such applications, we use the SIR-10 system equipped with 100, 500 and 1000 MHz antenna. This article discusses four examples of the application of GPR technology in Israel. The first instance concerns karst phenomena under highways, including open cracks and spaces at a depth of 3-4 meters in a fairly homogeneous dolomite rock, which could endanger the stability of the highway. The survey was conducted using a 500 MHz antenna towed by a vehicle. The second example addresses the detection of a tunnel dug in the subsurface by smugglers at the Israel-Egypt border and which was used to transfer merchandise, money and drugs. A radar survey carried out over a stretch of some 600 meters revealed an underground tunnel, 3.5 meters below the surface and about 1 meter in diameter, in a sandy-clayey environment. The third example concerns the inspection of an old 2 km runway using a 1 GHz ground coupled antenna towed by a vehicle. The s~rvey revealed an undulating subsurface strata at a depth of 50-110 em, probably the old runway asphalt surface laid some 50 years ago. The fourth case deals with the detection of oil spills at an oil refinery in a sandy environment using 100 MHz and 500 MHz antenna. The oil spills detected by GPR were in. good correlation with actual oil contaminated samples in drills. Further drills in areas suspected of being oil contaminated were planned on the basis of the GPR results. Most of the oil spills were located in close proximity to oil pipes which were probably to some degree eroded or broken.