HR: 08:30h
AN: NS31A-01    [Abstracts]
TI: Near-surface Imaging of a Maya Plaza Complex using Ground-Penetrating Radar
AU: * Aitken, J A
EM: jaitken@ucalgary.ca
AF: University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive, NW, Calgary, AB T2N-1N4 Canada
AU: Stewart, R R
EM: stewart@ucalgary.ca
AF: University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive, NW, Calgary, AB T2N-1N4 Canada
AB: The University of Calgary has conducted a number of ground-penetrating radar surveys at a Maya archaeological site. The purpose of the study is to discern the near-surface structure and stratigraphy of the plaza, and to assist the archaeologists in focusing their excavation efforts. The area of study is located in Belize, Central America at the ancient Maya site of Maax Na. Flanked by structures believed to be temples to the north and west, the archaeologists were interested in determining how many levels of plaza were built and if there was any discernable slope to the plaza. Over the last three years, both 2-D lines and 3-D grids were acquired at the plaza using a Sensors and Software Inc. Noggin Plus system at an antenna frequency of 250 MHz. The processing flow consisted of the application of gain, various filtering techniques and a diffraction stack migration using Reflexw. Interpolation of the gridded data was investigated using simple averaging, F-K migration, pre-stack migration and inversion techniques. As this study has evolved over different field seasons, measured velocities appear to change with the saturation level of the shallow section. Velocity measurements ranged from 0.058 - .106 m/ns during the wet conditions encountered in 2002 and 2004, while velocities of 1.22 - 1.40 m/ns were measured in the drought of 2003. The GPR images to date indicate continuous and interpretable images of the subsurface, showing evidence of structure, discontinuities and amplitude variations. A number of interesting anomalies have been identified, and prioritized for excavation.
DE: 9800 GENERAL OR MISCELLANEOUS
SC: Near-Surface Geophysics [NS]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly