Global developments in forensic geology

Maggio, Rosa Maria Di; Donnelly, Laurance; Naimi, Khudooma Saeed Al; Barone, Pier Matteo; Salvador, Fábio Augusto da Silva; Dawson, Lorna; Dixon, Roger D.; Fitzpatrick, Rob; Градусова, О. Б.; Нестерина, Е. М.; Peleneva, Marina; Ushacova, Olga; Gallego, Carlos Martín Molina; Pirrie, Duncan; Rufell, Alastair; McKinley, Jennifer; Sagripanti, Gullermo; Villalba, Diego; Schneck, Bill; Sugita, Ritsuko; Wach, Grant D.; Silva, Ricardo; Forbes, Shari L.

doi:10.18814/epiiugs/2017/v40i2/017014

Cited by 17 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…Biological methods, such as palynology and DNA analysis for instance, also contribute significantly to the success of soil forensics (e.g., ). The use of geological material, such as soil, in forensic investigations is increasing in police forces around the world, including at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the Australian Federal Police (AFP), as well as in other forensic agencies (e.g., ). Forensic soil provenancing, a sub‐discipline within forensic geology, can be defined as the capability to spatially constrain the likely region of origin of an evidentiary sample of earth‐related material .…”

Section: Empirical Soil Provenancingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Typically, forensic soil provenancing is implemented in an empirical way, in which the multidimensional information contained in the evidentiary soil's geochemistry, mineralogy (including grain morphology and mineral chemistry), biology, bulk properties, etc., is compared to either purposely acquired or pre‐existing knowledge . We call this “Empirical Soil Provenancing” (ESP) in Fig.…”

Section: Empirical Soil Provenancingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Predictive Soil Provenancing (PSP): An Innovative Forensic Soil Provenance Analysis Tool

Caritat

Simpson

Woods

2019

Journal of Forensic Sciences

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Soil is a common evidence type used in forensic and intelligence operations. Where soil composition databases are lacking or inadequate, we propose to use publicly available soil attribute rasters to reduce forensic search areas. Soil attribute rasters, which have recently become widely available at high spatial resolutions, typically three arc‐seconds (~90 m), are predictive models of the distribution of soil properties (with confidence limits) derived from data mining the inter‐relationships between these properties and several environmental covariates. Each soil attribute raster is searched for pixels that satisfy the compositional conditions of the evidentiary soil sample (target value ± confidence limits). We show through an example that the search area for an evidentiary soil sample can be reduced to <10% of the original investigation area. This Predictive Soil Provenancing (PSP) approach is a transparent, reproducible, and objective method of efficiently and effectively reducing the likely provenance area of forensic soil samples.

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Section: Empirical Soil Provenancingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Empirical Soil Provenancingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Predictive Soil Provenancing (PSP): An Innovative Forensic Soil Provenance Analysis Tool

Caritat

Simpson

Woods

2019

Journal of Forensic Sciences

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“…archaeology [Donnelly, 2013]), GIS (Somma et al, 2017). A general overview for those not familiar with Geoforensics or Forensic Geoscience can be found in Di Maggio et al (2017).…”

Section: The Desktop Study In Geoforensic Searchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Location of the Brecourt (Normandy, France) WW2 Howitzer battery using a geoforensic search strategy

Ruffell

Wach

2018

Journal of Conflict Archaeology

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The assault on D-day by Easy Company of the 101 st Airborne Corps on a German Howitzer battery at Brecourt Manor (Normandy) that was firing upon Utah Beach, is a famous action of World War 2. Understanding the firefight and disablement of the guns depends on where the four Howitzers and crew were located. Three of the locations are unequivocal with post-WW2 accounts and the search described here in agreement. One Howitzer position (the northernmost of the four) remains in contention, with two different positions described. A geoforensic search strategy (desktop study, geophysics, excavation) was deployed that shows strong evidence for the location of the debated fourth gun, together with aerial photographic and military tactical evidence for why this fourth Howitzer was moved to a second location close to D-day, resolving these debates. ARTICLE HISTORY

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“…The use of geological material such as soil in forensic investigations is increasing in police forces around the world, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and the Australian Federal Police (e.g., [ 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 ]). In Australia, successful soil forensic investigations have contributed evidence that has been used in Australian Supreme courts (e.g., [ 8 ]).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Forensic soil provenancing in an urban/suburban setting: A sequential multivariate approach

Caritat

Woods

Simpson

et al. 2021

Journal of Forensic Sciences

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Compositional data from a soil survey over North Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, are used to develop and test an empirical soil provenancing method. Mineralogical data from Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and magnetic susceptibility (MS), and geochemical data from X-ray fluorescence (XRF; for total major oxides) and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS; for both total and aqua regiasoluble trace elements) are performed on the survey's 268 topsoil samples (0-5 cm depth; 1 sample per km 2 ). Principal components (PCs) are calculated after imputation of censored data and centered log-ratio transformation. The sequential provenancing approach is underpinned by (i) the preparation of interpolated raster grids of the soil properties (including PCs); (ii) the explicit quantification and propagation of uncertainty; (iii) the intersection of the soil property rasters with the values of the evidentiary sample (± uncertainty); and (iv) the computation of cumulative provenance rasters ("heat maps") for the various analytical techniques. The sequential provenancing method is tested on the North Canberra soil survey with three "blind" samples representing simulated evidentiary samples. Performance metrics of precision and accuracy indicate that the FTIR and MS (mineralogy), as well as XRF and total ICP-MS (geochemistry) analytical methods, offer the most precise and accurate provenance predictions. Inclusion of PCs in provenancing adds marginally to the performance. Maximizing the number of analytes/ analytical techniques is advantageous in soil provenancing. Despite acknowledged limitations and gaps, it is concluded that the empirical soil provenancing approach can play an important role in forensic and intelligence applications.

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Global developments in forensic geology

Abstract: Forensic geology has developed in each country dependent on the history, political and social setting, anthropological influences and geology. The aim of this section is to provide a global overview of forensic geology, including the history, developments and future challenges in Africa,

Cited by 17 publications

References 14 publications

Predictive Soil Provenancing (PSP): An Innovative Forensic Soil Provenance Analysis Tool

Predictive Soil Provenancing (PSP): An Innovative Forensic Soil Provenance Analysis Tool

Location of the Brecourt (Normandy, France) WW2 Howitzer battery using a geoforensic search strategy

Forensic soil provenancing in an urban/suburban setting: A sequential multivariate approach

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