Journal
PERMAFROST AND PERIGLACIAL PROCESSES
Volume 26, Issue 1, Pages 13-27Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1002/ppp.1836
Keywords
rock glacier; permafrost; ground-based GPR; helicopter GPR
Categories
Funding
- ETH Zurich (CHIRP) [CHI-01 09-03]
- Canton Wallis, Switzerland
- LandmarkGraphics Corporation via the Landmark University Grant Program
Ask authors/readers for more resources
To forecast rock glacier movements, it is necessary to have dependable information on their internal structures and physical properties. A first attempt to expand our knowledge of a rock glacier in the Swiss Alps involved acquiring ground-based ground-penetrating radar (GPR) data along numerous profiles using different acquisition systems and antennae with different nominal frequencies. Images derived from these ground-based data were inconsistent and unreliable. For our second attempt, we recorded GPR data using a helicopter-mounted system. The helicopter GPR sections were surprisingly good, with consistent images along adjacent and intersecting profiles. Internal shear horizons, ice-rich and ice-poor regions and the bedrock interface were well delineated on the helicopter GPR images. Besides providing excellent-quality images, the helicopter GPR system allowed areas of the rock glacier to be surveyed that would have been difficult or impossible to access for a ground-based study. Because near-surface heterogeneity does not seem to have a major effect on helicopter GPR data acquired across a rugged rock glacier, we suggest that helicopter GPR surveying might be useful for investigating many terrains covered by heterogeneous loose material, including debris avalanches, scree slopes and rockfalls. Copyright (c) 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available