Detection of Groundwater Table by Using Ground Penetrating Radar in Two Selected Sites/Northern Iraq

Abstract

A non-damaging geophysical measurement technique test method ground penetrating radar (GPR) was carried out successfully in two sites in the middle and north of Iraq in order to investigate the feasibility of detecting the shallow underground water level in both selected sites. The results show that the groundwater depths in Baiji site were between 0.95m, and 1.2m, while in Hammam AL-Aleel site were between 1.0m to 1.1m near the river. It was also noticed in Hammam AL-Aleel site that the GPR image showed the appearances of dramatically and clear dissolving features that sometimes coincide with the level of groundwater which was approximately about 4m depth to the west of Northern Thermal Power Plant (NTPP), due to the existence of Fatha formation; while in the east of (NTPP) there was no solubility features due to the absence of Fatha formation and the presence of quaternary coarse sediments. This technique has been proved to be an effective detection method for underground water level and can serve as a reference for future application using the dependent physical property of permittivity and conductivity in engineering site investigation, hydrogeological investigations, and the detection of subsurface cavities.