Geophysical Monitoring of Simulated Clandestine Graves Using Electrical and Ground‐Penetrating Radar Methods: 0–3 Years After Burial*^,†

Abstract

This study provides forensic search teams with systematic geophysical monitoring data over simulated clandestine graves for comparison to active cases. Simulated 'wrapped' and 'naked' burials were created. Multi-geophysical surveys were collected over a three-year monitoring period. Bulk ground resistivity, Electrical Resistivity Imaging, multi-frequency Ground Penetrating Radar, grave and background 'soil water' conductivity data were collected. Resistivity surveys

Preliminary results of sequential monitoring of simulated clandestine graves in Colombia, South America, using ground penetrating radar and botany

“…This was in contrast to other simulated burial studies in similar depositional environments and soil types that evidenced clothing/wrapping generally provides a good radar reflective surface and hence good quality GPR hyperbolic reflectors could be obtained (e.g. see [51,52]. This could be due to the plastic covering not being fully over the pig unlike other studies (e.g.…”

“…This could be due to the plastic covering not being fully over the pig unlike other studies (e.g. [51,52]). However, bulk ground electrical resistivity techniques may be useful for forensic search teams to employ in these scenarios, as decomposition fluids are highly conductive and will not be trapped within victim clothes so will be a useful geophysical target (see [52]).…”

“…For each grave, the overlying vegetation was removed and c. 2 m x 2 m holes were dug in a regular pattern (Fig. 2a) as other researchers have undertaken [46][47][48][49][50][51][52]. Soil from both the top and main andisol soil were taken from all graves for analysis.…”

“…Recent geophysical research using simulated clandestine graves have found optimal detection methods and configurations are highly variable, depending upon a host of factors, the most important deemed to be time since burial, burial style, local soil type, vegetation and climate [35,[43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54].…”

Semblance analysis to assess GPR data from a five-year forensic study of simulated clandestine graves

“…As such, while archaeological 4 survey methodologies may be replicated in forensic searches, the style and 5 composition of the grave and its contents vary between the two settings. 14 However, the assessment of GPR results has largely been visual, qualitative and/or 15 subjective (Pringle et al, 2012b). This contrasts with a recent example of resistivity 16 analysis, in which an objective and quantitative approach to characterising electrical In this study, we develop a semblance-based method to quantify the assessment of 20 a time-lapse archive of GPR observations from a simulated clandestine burial site.…”