Investigation and characterization of karst landform with GPR: a case study in Shandong, China

Abstract

A substation is an important infrastructure for city operation and people’s life. The proposed site, 37 km northeast of Zaozhuang, Shandong province, is located on top of Cambrian limestone, most of which is directly exposed or covered by thinner Quaternary silty clay. The Karst processes on the surface contribute to the dissolution of gullies and limestone fissures in the surface topography. Directly the evidence shows that the study area is karst cave or the possibility of larger crack, the potential risk impact on subsequent substation the safety of the pile foundation installation construction. Thus led to the ground penetrating radar (GPR) investigation on the bedrock of karst development. The aim of this study was to characterize the development of karst caves in the shallow surface and delineate their locations. The 80 MHz shielding antenna was used to study and characterization of the karst features. The results of GPR method show that the application of a low-frequency antenna can satisfy a certain detection depth and well characterize the development of underground karst, which also proves that GPR method is very practical in the detection of karst landform and can be applied to identify similar geomorphic features.