Mihaela POPESCU, Raul David ȘERBAN, Petru URDEA & Alexandru ONACA
West University of Timișoara, Department of Geography, Blvd. V. Pârvan, no. 4, Timișoara, 300223, Romania, Email: mihaela.popescu89@e-vt.ro

CONVENTIONAL GEOPHYSICAL SURVEYS FOR LANDSLIDE INVESTIGATIONS: TWO CASE STUDIES FROM ROMANIA

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A combination of geophysical methods 2-D resistivity (ERT) and ground-penetrating radar (GPR) were applied in order to gain some information about the thickness and the internal structure of two landslides from Romania, in the Lipovei Hills and Apold Couloir (Transilvanian Tableland). In general, all the electrical resistivity data provide useful information on the geometry of the landslide body, lateral extension, but it is also really practical to identify the sliding surfaces, to estimate the thickness of the slide material or to highlight the areas with high water. In this study, the electrical resistivity data were acquired along the same profiles as the GPR surveys by using different electrodes arrays in order to surprise the internal characteristics of the investigated landslides. All the 2-D ERT profiles were completed using GPR data but sometimes the GPR results were affected by strong signal attenuation and it was almost impossible to obtain reliable information to compare them. Despite this drawback, some good results for the application of GPR method on landslides were obtained. It yielded useful information especially on shallow landslides when the radargrams were able to identify the main scarp or the main steps of the landslide. The tomograms and radargrams offers the possibility of correlating internal structure with detailed morphological elements as furrows, ditches, steps, benches, mounds, and microdepression, achieving detailed images of the internal structure of each investigated landslide.