Geological feature key to finding, protecting tombs [ Fracture traces ]

EurekAlert ^ | 22-Oct-2006 | A'ndrea Elyse Messer / Penn State

[SunkenCiv]

The idea that fracture traces could bare some connection to the rock cut tombs found in Egyptian valleys came to Katarin A. Parizek as she toured Egypt. K. Parizek, the daughter of Richard R. Parizek, professor of geology and geo-environmental engineering at Penn State, is a digital photographer, graphic designer and geologist. In 1992, on a Nile cruise to the Valley of the Kings near Luxor, she recognized the geological structures.

"Many of the tombs were in zones of fracture concentration revealed by fracture traces and lineaments," says K. Parizek, an instructor in digital photography. "I knew that these fractures were what Dad used to find water or to plan dewatering projects."

Fracture traces are the above-ground indication of underlying zones of rock fracture concentrations. In 1964, Laurence H. Lattman and R. Parizek published a paper on fracture traces that indicated where increased weathering and permeability occurred and where people could drill wells more efficiently. These fracture traces can be between 5 and 40 feet wide, but average about 20 feet, and can be as long as a mile.

[SunkenCiv]

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Previously flooded area shows cracking on mud floor, pillars breaking and ceiling falling in. (Katarin Parizek, Penn State)

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[SunkenCiv]

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[RightWhale]

Sometimes people fill in the drainages and sloughs in their neighborhood to get more buildable land and then wonder why they get flooded out now and then. Best work with nature rather than trying to conquer nature.

[bert]

My neighbor hood is in a classic karst region. There are many sinkholes varying from medium to large. Development resulted in covering the bottoms of several. The result is always runoff filling and sometimes flooding. The dirt fill usually clay has to be removed before proper drainage is restored. The drainage is underground to the river half mile away.

[RightWhale]

Clay is used to make earthenware dams, fairly effective. Many people do not understand drainage. It is a common human failing.

Another way they can find tombs, mineral deposits, other subsurface things, is remote sensing (spectral, 5 or 7 bands) of vegetation. The false colors can be adjusted so that vegetation with slightly more copper, for instance, content looks different in the display and mineralized ground is right there, just go and run some core samples to ground truth it.