DETECTING
EXPANSIVE CLAY SOIL ZONES AT THE
SERAPEUM ARCHAEOLOGICAL CEMETERY, SAQQARA
AREA, EGYPT, BY USING GROUND PENETRATING
RADAR
MAHER A. MESBAH
Dept of Geological and Geophysical Engineering; Faculty of Pet. and Min.
Eng., Sue Suez Canal University, Egypt
|
Ground penetrating radar survey is applied for the investigations of expansive clay soils in the under-ground Serapeum cemetery at Saqqara area, to the south of Cairo. Expansive clay soils exhibit potential to gain and lose their volume differentially and without regard to loading. The cemetery of Serapeum is rock cut corridors and chambers excavated in the Nile mud.
A GPR with 250 MHz antenna was used to acquire four radar lines with resolutions of 0.02, 0.05 and 0.l0m in order to image the shallow subsurface layers. The use of digital signal processing of the measured georadar lines indicated the capability of tracing zones of expansive clay soils. Since, the parts which are surrounded by walls are expanded and fractured more than those parts occurred next to the opens of chambers or of no walls. The traced zones of highly expanded and fractured soils must be considered before and during the stages of engineering maintenance and protection.
|
|