Przegląd Geograficzny (2020) vol. 92, iss. 3
GPR surveys of kame hills as an example of geophysical methods being applied to the study of forms built of finegrained clastic sediments
Przegląd Geograficzny (2020) vol. 92, iss. 3, pp. 423-446 | 
Full text
doi: https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2020.3.7
Abstract
The Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) method potentially offers many possibilities for fast and reliable lithostratigraphic sediment models to be developed. From a cognitive point of view, this represents a major simplification and shortening of procedures with which information about sediments can be obtained. And from the point of view of the economy of operations, there can be a significant reduction in costs and time of research in shallow geology and the stratigraphy of areas where unconsolidated clastic sediments are of superficial occurrence. Also noteworthy is the possibility for the results of GPR surveys to be deployed in support of geological mapping, as well as in the shallow exploration of resources and hydrogeological studies.
The most major advantage of the GPR method related to the possibility of the structure of forms being observed in full shape. In the absence of large outcrops, geophysical prospection of geomorphological forms is helpful, insofar as we are able to translate the results of geophysical surveys into the actual lithostratigraphic system of sediments building a specific form.
Against that background, the research presented in this article forms part of the work to develop radar stratigraphy, as an important support for direct geological research (Huggenberger et al., 1994; Van Overmeeren, 1998; Beres et al., 1999, Overgaard and Jakobsen, 2001; Jakobsen and Overgaard, 2002; Neal, 2004; Lejzerowicz et al., 2014; Żuk and Sambrook Smith, 2015; Lejzerowicz et al., 2018). It also points to the research potential of the GPR method in determining the genesis of form. The discussion on the way kames form (and even as regards the way they should be defined) has been going on in the literature for years (Niewiarowski, 1959; 1961; Karczewski, 1971; Klajnert, 1978; Jaksa, 2003; Terpiłowski, 2008). The studies presented here do not suffice to allow the matter to be determined comprehensively, even though they do provide for verification of the opinions of previous researchers. An example would be the observation of numerous faults in the whole mass of the western Owieczkowo kame (Fig. 7A), with this attesting to the creation of the form on ice, rather than on mineral ground (Niewiarowski, 1959).
The area forming the subject of this article is defined by Niewiarowski (1959) as the dead ice zone because of the characteristic set of forms (dead ice moraines, kames and eskers). Like modern researchers (Terpiłowski, 2008), Niewiarowski points to the importance of sub-Quaternary surface elevations in the formation of cracks in the ice sheet, with this leading on to the formation of kame hills above such elevations. This would also seem to have been one of the reasons for the formation in the mass of ice of lakes whose filling with sediment and melting ice walls took the form of kames.
The great advantage of the GPR method lies in its ability to recognise macrostructural sediment patterns in glacilimic forms. This diagnosis allows for the high-probability assessment of the genesis of form, especially in the context of its position being determined in the marginal zone of the ice sheet. Also looking extremely promising is the capacity for the thickness of fine clastic sediments lying on till to be determined using GPR. It allows for the determination of the way in which a given form is rooted.
Described as they are in brief only, test results for selected sites serve to confirm the great usefulness of the GPR method in the recognition of shallow lithostratigraphy of clastic sediments. Nevertheless, this should not be the only method used to recognise the geological structure of forms and sediments. Significant interpretation ambiguities mean that the GPR method should act in support of direct lithostratigraphic research, not merely serving as an alternative to it. GPR surveys offer a depiction particularly close to the real one – of sediment present in homogeneous sediments in relation to electrical parameters. Sediments ideal for GPR surveys would for example be fine dry sands or silts – and it is precisely these sediments that built most of the investigated kame forms.
Most of the field research presented in this article was financed as part of Ministry of Science and Higher Education Research Project No. N N306 281235 entitled “Genesis of selected glacial forms in the Polish Lowland in the light of geophysical georadar surveys”.
Keywords: kames, Ground Penetrating Radar, geophysical research, clastic sediments, Polish Lowland
[piotr.lamparski@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Kopernika 19, 87-100 Toruń, Poland
Citation
APA: Lamparski, P. (2020). Badania georadarowe kemów jako przykład możliwości zastosowania metod geofizycznych do badania form zbudowanych z drobnoziarnistych osadów klastycznych. Przegląd Geograficzny, 92(3), 423-446. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2020.3.7
MLA: Lamparski, Piotr. "Badania georadarowe kemów jako przykład możliwości zastosowania metod geofizycznych do badania form zbudowanych z drobnoziarnistych osadów klastycznych". Przegląd Geograficzny, vol. 92, no. 3, 2020, pp. 423-446. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2020.3.7
Chicago: Lamparski, Piotr. "Badania georadarowe kemów jako przykład możliwości zastosowania metod geofizycznych do badania form zbudowanych z drobnoziarnistych osadów klastycznych". Przegląd Geograficzny 92, no. 3 (2020): 423-446. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2020.3.7
Harvard: Lamparski, P. 2020. "Badania georadarowe kemów jako przykład możliwości zastosowania metod geofizycznych do badania form zbudowanych z drobnoziarnistych osadów klastycznych". Przegląd Geograficzny, vol. 92, no. 3, pp. 423-446. https://doi.org/10.7163/PrzG.2020.3.7