Identification of buried historical mineshaft using ground-penetrating radar

Abstract

Buried historical mineshafts constitute significant sinkhole hazards and sources of geotechnical risks. The locations of buried mineshafts on old mining maps are prone to inaccuracies. An efficient way to limit these inaccuracies is to use geophysical methods. However, their effectiveness strongly depends on the local survey conditions.The aim of the study was to identify the buried 14th century Wielki mineshaft in Bochnia Salt Mine, a UNESCO Worldwide Heritage Site, Poland. The need to locate this shaft was due to the following reasons. Firstly, the Bochnia Salt Mine had difficulties with water flowing into the workings from the supposed location of the Wielki mineshaft. The shaft area was one of the most waterlogged in the salt mine's terrain. An urgent task was to determine the shaft's exact location to implement a waterproof barrier to protect the historic mine workings. Secondly, the modernisation of the market square in Bochnia required clarification of the location of the Wielki mineshaft and checking as to whether it posed a sinkhole hazard to the terrain surface. Another important reason for locating the medieval shaft was its archaeological value.A ground surface and borehole ground-penetrating radar (GPR) study and geological-engineering recognition using boreholes were employed to indicate the location of the Wielki shaft. The anthropogenic layer of heterogeneous material and the urbanised site resulted in challenges with regard to detecting evident georadar anomalies. Several dozen intersecting GPR profiles were gathered in the research area using 250 MHz and 100 MHz antennae. The initial surface GPR results, indicative of the GPR anomaly, were consolidated by cored borehole investigation and a borehole GPR study. In particular, the presence of a void, loosened zones, and wooden fragments of the shaft lining was confirmed in the inclined control borehole. Following our classification of typical causes of the occurrence of sinkholes over buried mineshafts, the consolidation of backfill material in a mineshaft was determined as the cause of the sinkhole originated above the Wielki shaft (type B sinkhole). Destruction of the shaft's wooden cap may result in the occurrence of a sinkhole on the ground surface. Therefore, the void was backfilled and a hydraulic barrier was consequently made to stop the seepage of water into the Bochnia Salt Mine's historic workings.This case study demonstrates that surface and borehole GPR surveying integrated with borehole data offers the possibility of obtaining the high-resolution data needed to accurately locate an old buried mineshaft in an urbanised area. The GPR anomaly was indirectly detected on the basis of the deflection of the boundary between the natural ground and an anthropogenic layer with sufficient contrast in their electromagnetic properties. This approach can be useful wherever the georadar penetration range is limited by high attenuation and dispersiveness of the anthropogenic layer.