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23rd EEGS Symposium on the Application of Geophysics to Engineering and Environmental Problems
- Conference date: 11 Apr 2010 - 15 Apr 2010
- Location: Keystone, Canada
- Published: 11 April 2010
121 - 131 of 131 results
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Using Geophysical Methods for Archaeological Excavation in 2008 Season for Urartian Sites Located in Van, Yoncatepe
Authors Nihan Hoskan, Fethi Ahmet Yuksel and Oktay BelliThis Paper presents the results of the archeological excavation carried out for Urartian settlement located in Yoncatepe (Van-Turkey) in 2008. The Yoncatepe Palace is located 9 km away from the city of Van, to the west of Varak and Erek Mountains, 1.5 km to the southwest of Yukarı Bakraçlı (Yedikilise) village. The Yoncatepe Palace acropol and necropol kept its strategical position from 1000 B.C. until the Urartian kingdom.
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Application of Geophysical Methods for Archaeological Excavation (2009) in Amasya-Oluz Hoyuk (Yassi Hoyuk)
Authors Fethi Ahmet Yuksel, Nihan Hoskan and Sevket DonmezOluz Höyük, in the Amasya Province, situated in the Land Zone of the Central Black Sea Region, resides at the 27th km of the Corum Mainroad, in the territory of the Gökhöyük Agriculture Operation Management. Oluz Höyük, which has dimensions of 280 x 260 m, is 15 m higher than the plate level and has a field of 45.000 m² and one of the biggest hoyuks of the region. A total of 6 architectural layers were discovered resulting from the excavations of Oluz Höyük 2007 (first season) carried out in two trenchs. In this context The 0 Layer of the Oluz Höyük could be dated to Middle Age; The 1st Architectural Layer to Hellenistic Period (The end of 2nd century BC and the beginning of the 1st century BC); The 2nd Architectural Layer to the Late Phase of the Late Iron Age (4th and 3rd centuries BC). The 3rd and 4th Architectural layers could be dated to the Early Phase of the Late Iron Age (6th and 5th centuries BC), 5th Architectural Layer to the Middle Iron Age (7th century BC) and 6th Architectural Later to possibly either Early Iron Age or Late Bronze Age in other words, to the Age of Hittite Empire Period. Geophysical tecniques were applied for archaeological excavation in Amasya, Oluz Hoyuk. Geophysical studies were shown some anomalies that can be interpreted as walls and tombs. Location of anomalies were excavated in 2008 season.
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Where have All the Aboiteaux Gone? Mapping Burried Historic Drainage Systems in New Brunswick, Canada
Authors Justin Rogers, Darcy J Dignam, Raye Lahti, William Webb, Elissa Atkinson and Andri HansonThe provincial government of New Brunswick Canada has undertaken the task of rehabilitating historic agricultural marsh lands along the shores of the Petitcodiac River. Since this proposed undertaking will negatively impact shoreline indigenous soils, provincial regulations triggered an archaeological resources assessment. One component of the archaeological program conducted by AMEC was an EM31-SH survey of the proposed shoreline impact areas. Spatial reference was recorded using a Trimble AG114 Global Positioning System (GPS). The principal archaeological objective of the EM31-SH survey was to identify potential subsurface prehistoric and historic archaeological resources. Historically, since the 17th century, the shoreline marshes of the Petitcodiac River have been utilized for agricultural purposes; using a system of dykes (berms) and aboiteaux (drainage structures including oneway valves) that allow water to drain from the marsh while preventing river tidal waters from flooding the marsh. The construction of dykes and aboiteaux in the 1950s “eliminated” any preexisting historcal structures. Thus, while there remains physical remnants of the mid-19th century drainage system, there is little surficial evidence of the preexisting historical systems, Identifying the locations of the both potential prehistoric and historic archaeological features using traditional archaeological testing methods would have been both expensive and time consuming given the large area.
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Application of Potential Geophysical Fields at Archaeological Sites in Israel: An Introduction
More LessIn Israel occur a giant number of archaeological objects of various age, origin and size. Geodynamical active, multi-layered, and geologically variable surrounding media in many cases damages ancient objects and disturbs their physical properties. This calls to application different geophysical methods armed by the modern interpretation technology. Potential geophysical fields (magnetic, gravity, resistivity, self-potential and thermal) are non-expensive, rapid and effective tools for investigation of the most part of archaeological remains. One of the main advantages is that quantitative analysis of these fields may be realized by the use of similar interpretation methodology. Several examples illustrate effective application of potential geophysical methods over some typical archaeological remains in Israel.
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Performance Assessment of a New Boom-Mounted Airborne Time-Domain Electromagnetic System
In 2008, design and construction was completed on a new boom-mounted airborne time-domain electromagnetic system, the Battelle TEM-8 system. Review of survey results led to secondary hardware and software modifications throughout following year. The system was designed primarily for widearea assessment of sites contaminated with unexploded ordnance (UXO), but has already found broader application. To date it has seen use in five deployments: 1) Battelle’s UXO airborne technology test grid in Ohio, 2) an Australian air base where infrastructure mapping was needed in advance of new construction, 3) Twentynine Palms, a Marine base in California, 4) Camp LeJeune, a Marine base in North Carolina, and 5) a pair of proximal sites in New Mexico which were used for bomber training. Results of these surveys are compiled to provide insight into the capabilities of airborne metaldetecting systems in general, and the TEM-8 system in particular. Sensitivity is assessed as a function of the ability to detect ordnance of different sizes. Positional accuracy is also derived from the UXO surveys. Comparison of airborne magnetometer and TEM-8 results provide a basis for assessing the strengths of each. Likewise, the advantages of joint analysis of magnetometer and electromagnetic data sets can be assessed at sites where both were acquired. Finally, the benefits of TEM data for mapping infrastructure and distinguishing spurious geologic response from metallic waste can be demonstrated.
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A Pseudo-Time Constant Approach to Target Discrimination in Airborne Time-Domain Electromagnetic Uxo Surveys
Authors Jacob R. Sheehan and William E. DollA simple combination of data from three time-domain electromagnetic time gates is used to drastically reduce the total number of picks required to detect a set number of known seed items. This approach takes advantage of the physics of time-domain electromagnetic geophysical systems and signal decay properties in a way that does not require as much data as that needed to calculate the actual delay constant.
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Alltem Uxo Classification and Discrmination Results from the Yuma Proving Ground Standardized Test Site
Authors Theodore H. Asch, David L. Wright, Craig W. Moulton, Trevor P. Irons and David V. SmithAn advanced multi-axis electromagnetic induction system, ALLTEM, has been specifically designed for detection and discrimination of unexploded ordnance (UXO). This work has been funded by ESTCP (Project MM-0809). ALLTEM uses a continuous triangle-wave excitation that measures the target step response rather than the more common impulse response. Ferrous and non-ferrous metal objects have opposite polarities. The system multiplexes through all three orthogonal (Hx, Hy, and Hz axes) transmitting loops and records a total of 19 different transmitting (Tx) and receiving (Rx) loop combinations with a spatial data sampling interval of 15 cm to 20 cm. 2008 saw improvements to the ALLTEM with a new, lighter cart made of NOMEX honeycomb with fiberglass facing and new electronics with approximately 40% higher current output. An Attitude Heading and Reference System has also been integrated into the acquisition stream and is used to generate more precise locations of sensor locations. Software improvements include development and integration of ALLTEM analyses onto the Oasis Montaj platform. This includes importing survey data, gridding, noise analysis for threshold determination, automatic selection of targets, batch inversion of selected targets using PEST (a forward model independent non-linear inversion), and automatic classification of inverted targets into clutter and targets of interest. This paper presents some of the results of a demonstration and validation survey at the Yuma Proving Ground in February 2009. The U.S. Geological Survey operated ALLTEM with a Leica 1200 GPS over the Army’s UXO Calibration and Blind Test Grids and a portion of the Open Field Area. Ongoing data analyses indicate that this new and improved version of the ALLTEM is able to detect anomalous features and to automatically classify targets as being items of interest or not and then to discriminate the munitions’ types.
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Estcp San Luis Obispo Classification Demonstration
Authors H.H. Nelson, K. Kaye and A.M. AndrewsThe second demonstration in the Environmental Security Technology Certification Program’s
Classification Pilot Program was conducted in the summer of 2009 at a range on former Camp San Luis Obispo, CA that contained a mix of munitions. The objective of the demonstration was to correctly classify as many of the detected buried objects as possible as non-hazardous and thus safe to leave in the ground. A number of commercial and developmental magnetometer and electromagnetic induction sensor systems were used to map the site. The detected anomalies in each sensor data set were analyzed by a number of groups to extract target parameters. After training on roughly 200 excavated targets, each analyst constructed a prioritized list of the roughly 1300 remaining anomalies indicating which were non-hazardous, which were hazardous, and which could not be successfully analyzed. Substantial classification performance was achieved in the analysis of carefully collected commercial EMI sensor data and even better performance was achieved by the developmental, cued sensors that were demonstrated. Example results are presented as receiver operating characteristic curves.
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Classification of Buried Objects using Multi-Axis Electromagnetic Induction Survey Data
Authors Thomas H. Bell, Bruce J. Barrow and Daniel A. SteinhurstMulti-axis electromagnetic induction (EMI) sensors are capable of reliably classifying buried objects. To date, they have been used in a static cued interrogation mode. Here, we demonstrate that a single survey line of multi-axis data over a target can be inverted to determine the object parameters used for classification. Two processing approaches are considered: conventional dipole inversion and a new, simpler approach that exploits rotationally invariant properties of the EMI response.
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Uxo Discrimination at Camp San Luis Obispo with the Metalmapper
Authors Donald D. Snyder, Mark Prouty, David C. George, Tom King, Mary Poulton and Anna SzidarovszkyThe MetalMapper is an electromagnetic metal detector that is being commercialized by Geometrics, Inc with support from the Environmental Security Technology Certification Program (ESTCP). Together with several other systems, the MetalMapper participated in an ESTCP-sponsored classification study at the former Camp San Luis Obispo (SLO) located a few miles northwest of San Luis Obispo, CA. Operating independently, the MetalMapper conducted two surveys: a dynamic mapping survey for target detection; a precision (“Cued ID”) static measurement over detected targets for use in discrimination. The SLO study involved a number of different organizations deploying both commercially available EM and magnetic sensors and advanced EM systems such as the MetalMapper. Following the completion of the field work by these organizations, nearly 2000 targets identified from the detection surveys were then dug. Using a common set of targets, demonstrators prepared a dig list prioritized according to the probability that a particular target was a target of interest (TOI). The dig lists were scored by the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA). The primary objective of this paper is to describe MetalMapper system, the data processing, and the methodology employed for assembling the prioritized dig list. We also present the scoring results for the MetalMapper as provided to us by the IDA.
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Technical Overview of the Seismic Acoustic Impact Monitoring Assessment (Saima) System
Authors Thomas F. VanDeMark, Ray Conner, Lars B. Johnson, Jay Bennett, Janet E. Simms and Don E. YuleThe Department of Defense (DoD) uses over two million high-explosive (HE) munitions per year at live-fire training and testing ranges, which generates unexploded ordnance (UXO) at a substantial rate. The DoD is responsible for environmental restoration of all properties (i.e., BRAC, FUDS) affected from these firing range activities. Current remediation approaches that require UXO location by geophysical methods, (e.g., magnetometry and electromagnetic induction) are costly because of high false alarm rates caused by the presence of scrap metal (Report of the Defense Science Task Board on UXO, 2003). The focus of this research is not to remediate ranges through the removal of UXO that has accumulated through years of firing, but to sustain present and future ranges at a zero UXO net gain status through the development of a complementary technology that will alleviate false alarm rate and reduce the UXO search area by detecting, locating, and classifying UXO in real time as a munition impacts the range. The objective is to determine the status of ordnance impacts (high order explosion, low order explosion, or dud (UXO)), and to determine the location of impacts within two meters. Research using seismic-acoustic sensors began in 2005 to determine if it is feasible to detect, classify, and locate UXO rounds in real time as they impact the range. Initial work at Yuma Proving Ground (YPG), Arizona showed that acoustic and seismic phases propagated from HE artillery impacts and could both be observed on a seismic sensor and positively identified (Anderson and Weale, 2006; Anderson and Tinker, 2006). Follow on research at Ft. Ethan Allen, Vermont and Eagle River Flats, Alaska proved the capability to seismically discriminate between inert training rounds and high explosive impacts and to calculate seismic location solutions of explosive sources to within 10 m of actual impact location (QTSI, 2007a; QTSI, 2007b). Finally, seismic/acoustic data generated from mortar and artillery impacts at the U.S. Army Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG) in late May and early June of 2008 (VanDeMark et al., 2009) and August of 2009 were analyzed to develop and validate hardware, procedures, and algorithms for an automated range monitoring system known as the Seismic Acoustic Impact Monitoring Assessment (SAIMA) system. This paper presents an overview of the resulting prototype SAIMA system and each of its components. The system is composed of a buried seismic array, which encircles a calibrated mortar or artillery impact area, and employs a set of algorithms to detect, locate, and classify impacts. Actionable information can be presented graphically on a user interface, or within a generated event report suitable for range administration.
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