Use of surface and borehole geophysical surveys to determine fracture orientation and other site characteristics in crystalline bedrock terrain, Millville and Uxbridge, Massachusetts

<p>Landslides and floods are the two most important geohazards in Sweden. Due to the climate change effects, it is believed that the risk of occurring these geohazards will increase in Sweden causing for example the land to become more prone to landslides. Additionally, due to the isostatic uplift caused by the retreating of the ice sheet, approximately 10,000 years ago, marine sediments involving marine clays have become exposed above sea level in Scandinavia. Infiltration of fresh water has (and is) leached the salt from the pores within the marine clays leading to the formation a special kind of clay known as the quick clay in the northern countries. These glacial clays and postglacial silts cause more ground surface instability and become slops more prone to trigger landslides, which is the case for concentration of the most landslides in the southwest of Sweden. Hence, quick-clay landslides are common geohazards in Nordic countries, which potentially could cause a considerable economical and live cost. The most recent Gjerdurm landslide in&#160;Norway was of this kind quick-clay related.</p><p>In recent years, an area close to the G&#246;ta River of southeast of Sweden has been the subject of numerous surface and airborne geophysical surveys for detailed subsurface mapping and delineation of the quick-clay and sediments hosting them including the very undulating the crystalline bedrock. These existing studies including access to borehole observations and geotechnical studies motivated us to study also long-term surface deformation in order to study climate effects, erosion, precipitation and underlying quick-clay presence in this area and neighboring regions. We employed radar data with Syntenic Aperture Radar (SAR) interferometry techniques. To this end, Sentinel-1 data from 2015 to 2019 were processed with the Small BAsline Subset (SBAS) technique to estimate time-series displacements and to generate deformation map for that region. The initial results show that the heterogenous deformation observed in the study area with maximum subsidence rate of -22 mm/yr. The deforming areas appear to be located on regions with the thickest column of the clay near the river where we anticipate also thicker quick-clay layers present. The quick-clays in this region overlie a thick (ca. 20 m) coarse-grained layer interpreted from the surface geophysical measurements to be associated with the formation and triggering of quick-clays in the area. With such a large surface deformation and the underling geology, we observe two phenomena in the study. A possible sudden risk of quick-clay landslide but also a long-term creeping of clays and destabilizing effect that may accelerate erosion at the river bank causing more landslides in the future. The cause of the large deformation is still unclear and will be investigated together with hydrogeological and geophysical data available in the study. This study however provides compelling evidence of major surface deformation that should be considered for long-term risk mitigation and planning.&#160;&#160;</p>

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Characteristics of fractures in crystalline bedrock determined by surface and borehole geophysical surveys, eastern surplus superfund site, Meddybemps, Maine

10.3133/wri994050 ◽

1999 ◽

Keyword(s):

Superfund Site ◽

Crystalline Bedrock ◽

Geophysical Surveys

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Geomorphology and shallow sub-sea floor structures underneath the Ekström Ice Shelf, Antarctica

10.5194/tc-2021-305 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Astrid Oetting ◽

Emma C. Smith ◽

Jan Erik Arndt ◽

Boris Dorschel ◽

Reinhard Drews ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Continental Shelf ◽

Ice Sheet ◽

Ice Shelf ◽

Ice Shelves ◽

Sea Floor ◽

Crystalline Bedrock ◽

Geophysical Surveys ◽

Dronning Maud Land ◽

Ice Retreat ◽

Continental Shelf Break

Abstract. The Ekström Ice Shelf is one of numerous small ice shelves that fringe the coastline of western Dronning Maud Land, East Antarctica. Reconstructions of past ice-sheet extent in this area are poorly constrained, due to a lack of geomorphological evidence. Here, we present a compilation of geophysical surveys in front of and beneath the Ekström Ice Shelf, to identify and interpret evidence of past ice sheet flow, extent and retreat. The sea floor beneath the Ekström Ice Shelf is dominated by an incised trough, which extends from the modern day grounding line on to the continental shelf. Our surveys show that Mega-Scale Glacial Lineations cover most of the mouth of this trough, terminating 11 km away from the continental shelf break, indicating the most recent maximal extent of grounded ice in this region. Beneath the front ~30 km of the ice shelf, the sea floor is characterised by an acoustically transparent sedimentary unit, up to 45 m-thick. This is likely composed of subglacial till, further corroborating the presence of past grounded ice cover. Further inland, the sea floor becomes rougher, interpreted as a transition from subglacial tills to a crystalline bedrock, corresponding to the outcrop of the volcanic Explora Wedge at the sea floor. Ice retreat in this region appears to have happened rapidly in the centre of the incised trough, evidenced by a lack of overprinting of the lineations at the trough mouth. At the margins of the trough uniformly spaced recessional moraines suggest ice retreated more gradually. We estimate the palaeo-ice thickness at the calving front around the Last Glacial Maximum to have been at least 305 m to 320 m, based on the depth of iceberg ploughmarks within the trough and sea-level reconstructions. Given the similarity of the numerous small ice shelves around the Dronning Maud Land coast, these findings are likely representative for other ice shelves in this region and provide essential boundary conditions for palaeo ice-sheet models in this severely understudied region.

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Integration of Multi-geophysical Approaches to Identify Potential Pathways of Heavy Metals Contamination - A Case Study in Zeida, Morocco

Journal of Environmental and Engineering Geophysics ◽

10.32389/jeeg9-067 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 25 (3) ◽

pp. 415-423

Author(s):

Ahmed Lachhab ◽

El Mehdi Benyassine ◽

Mohamed Rouai ◽

Abdelilah Dekayir ◽

Jean C. Parisot ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Heavy Metals ◽

Seismic Velocity ◽

Seismic Refraction ◽

Geophysical Methods ◽

Low Frequency ◽

Electrical Current ◽

P Wave ◽

Low Resistivity ◽

Refraction Tomography ◽

Geophysical Surveys

The tailings of Zeida's abandoned mine are found near the city of Midelt, in the middle of the high Moulouya watershed between the Middle and the High Atlas of Morocco. The tailings occupy an area of about 100 ha and are stored either in large mining pit lakes with clay-marl substratum or directly on a heavily fractured granite bedrock. The high contents of lead and arsenic in these tailings have transformed them into sources of pollution that disperse by wind, runoff, and seepage to the aquifer through faults and fractures. In this work, the main goal is to identify the pathways of contaminated water with heavy metals and arsenic to the local aquifers, water ponds, and Moulouya River. For this reason, geophysical surveys including electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), seismic refraction tomography (SRT) and very low-frequency electromagnetic (VLF-EM) methods were carried out over the tailings, and directly on the substratum outside the tailings. The result obtained from combining these methods has shown that pollutants were funneled through fractures, faults, and subsurface paleochannels and contaminated the hydrological system connecting groundwater, ponds, and the river. The ERT profiles have successfully shown the location of fractures, some of which extend throughout the upper formation to depths reaching the granite. The ERT was not successful in identifying fractures directly beneath the tailings due to their low resistivity which inhibits electrical current from propagating deeper. The seismic refraction surveys have provided valuable details on the local geology, and clearly identified the thickness of the tailings and explicitly marked the boundary between the Triassic formation and the granite. It also aided in the identification of paleochannels. The tailings materials were easily identified by both their low resistivity and low P-wave velocity values. Also, both resistivity and seismic velocity values rapidly increased beneath the tailings due to the compaction of the material and lack of moisture and have proven to be effective in identifying the upper limit of the granite. Faults were found to lie along the bottom of paleochannels, which suggest that the locations of these channels were caused by these same faults. The VLF-EM surveys have shown tilt angle anomalies over fractured areas which were also evinced by low resistivity area in ERT profiles. Finally, this study showed that the three geophysical methods were complementary and in good agreement in revealing the pathways of contamination from the tailings to the local aquifer, nearby ponds and Moulouya River.

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