Honoring Our Ancestries – Graveyards Investigations with GPR

Honoring our deceased family members or relatives is human nature. This practice has been around for thousands of years among advanced societies. Nowadays, it is a necessary, yet well-used, practice in road/highway construction or building developments that the ground should be investigated prior to construction to make sure no unmarked graves are disturbed during the groundwork.

There are many marked graves in existence, but knowing the location of the one unmarked is just as important as the existing tombstone at the graveyard. Fortunately, through advanced geophysical methods, we are capable of producing a 3D/4D map to provide information about unmarked grave locations in order to mark them respectfully. 

The image below is an illustration of a large project that was conducted on an open field to find and essentially provide evidence of unmarked graves.

The area of the green rectangle is indicating a subsurface anomaly that could be the potential location of an unmarked grave. The image on the left is a typical radar cross section that shows relative distance and calculated depth information. The image on the right is an interpolated 3D data set which is technically the result of a 2.5 inversion. The 3D image is always helpful for the end users to determine the dimension of an anomaly as well as its location. All 3D results are georeferenced, so it is easy to relocate it days or weeks after the field investigation is completed. 

This type of non-invasive investigation is quick and reliable. Hundreds of data can be recorded within a short period of time so large areas can be covered in one day. Data processing and analysis is also quick, and the preliminary information is typically provided a few days after the data collection is completed at the field.