See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/300343296

Imaging of Shallow Underwater Ancient Ruins

with ERT and Seismic Methods

Conference Paper · October 2015

DOI: 10.3997/2214-4609.201414161

CITATIONS READS

0 31

4 authors, including:

George Kritikakis Nikos Papadopoulos

Technical University of Crete Foundation for Research and Technology - H…
32 PUBLICATIONS 43 CITATIONS 84 PUBLICATIONS 356 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Kleanthis Simyrdanis
Institute for Mediterranean Studies
17 PUBLICATIONS 16 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

A Regional Approach to Ancient Urban Studies in Greece Through Multi-Settlement

Geophysical Survey View project

Real time GPR for the detection of boulders during excavation at lignite mines. View project

All in-text references underlined in blue are linked to publications on ResearchGate, Available from: Kleanthis Simyrdanis
letting you access and read them immediately. Retrieved on: 13 November 2016
Title:

Imaging of shallow underwater ancient ruins with ERT and seismic methods.

Authors:

George Kritikakis (Applied Geophysics Lab, Technical University of Crete), Nikos

Papadopoulos (Institute for Mediterranean Studies, Foundation for Research and Technology –
Hellas), Kleanthis Simyrdanis (Institute for Mediterranean Studies, Foundation for Research
and Technology – Hellas) and Theotokis Theodoulou (Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities)

Abstract
The present geophysical research aims in evaluating the applicability of the Electrical Resistivity
Tomography (ERT) and seismic (Multichannel Analysis of Surface Waves - MASW and refraction)
methods on mapping shallow underwater ancient remnants. The preliminary results from a single
seismic line and its corresponding ERT section (surveyed at the site of Agioi Theodoroi area located
10 km eastern of Heraklion, Crete, Greece) are presented. This work demonstrates that ERT as well as
MASW are very promising geophysical methods for the delineation of underwater antiquities. High
resistivity anomalies were attributed to building walls and are in accordance with some of their
mapped outcrops. Furthermore, MASW method exhibits significant correspondence with ERT
showing lateral S-wave velocity variations at the positions where the high resistivity anomalies exist.
Surface waves traveling through the shallow sediments (Scholte-waves) demonstrate relatively low
velocity values. This makes them suitable for the detection of relatively large (> 0.5 m) underwater
manmade structures, providing the use of a high frequency source and thus, the creation of relatively
short wavelengths (< 2 m). These preliminary results show the potential in employing modern
tomographic techniques in the revealing the cultural dynamics in shallow off-shore archaeological
sites.

Main Objectives
The examination of ERT and seismic methods applicability in mapping shallow underwater ancient
remnants.

New Aspects
Scholte-waves traveling through the shallow sediments demonstrate very low velocity values. This
makes them suitable for the detection of relatively large (> 0.5 m) underwater manmade structures.

Type of Presentation
Prefer Oral but accept Poster

Topics
1. 06 Geophysics for Historical Heritage
2. 10 Marine Geophysics
3. 09 Seismic Surface Waves

8th Congress of the Balkan Geophysical Society

5-8 October 2015, Chania, Greece
Introduction

Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) has been extensively used for the detection of ancient ruins
in land. Fewer investigations aim on the detection of underwater structures (Passaro, 2010). On the
other hand, high frequency acoustic methods (i.e. side scan sonar, sub-bottom profiler etc) are utilized
for the detection of deep (i.e. 500 m) to shallow (i.e. 2 m) underwater antiquities, especially for
shipwrecks buried in sediments (Plets et al., 2009, Grøn and Boldreel, 2014). Reports on using
conventional seismic methods for mapping underwater ancient man made targets are rare or even non-
existent.

The investigated area of Agioi Theodoroi Fig. 1) is located about 10 km east of the city of Heraklion
in Crete, Greece and is known for a big four-side building excavated on the beach by Marinatos in
1926 (Marinatos and Hirmer, 1986). The specific excavation campaign brought to light some
additional walls that were either covered by sea water or sand depending on the local conditions.
Recent off-shore archaeological investigations managed to map the submerged archaeological relics
that are buried at depth of less than one meter below the water sea level.

The aim of the presented geophysical research was to evaluate the applicability of the Electrical
Resistivity Tomography (ERT) and seismic (Multichannel Analysis of Surface Waves - MASW and
refraction) methods on mapping the shallow underwater ancient remnants. The complete geophysical
survey consisted of two off-shore single 2D ERT lines in vertical directions, two grids laid out on the
land and in the sea composed of parallel ERT lines for 3D mapping and one seismic line. However, in
this work, only the preliminary results from the seismic line and its corresponding ERT section are
presented. Apart from the geophysical survey, the outcrops of the residence walls were also mapped
and high resolution air-photographs of the investigated area have been acquired. In addition, synthetic
ERT data were created for the selection of the suitable acquisition parameters.

Geophysical data acquisition, processing and interpretation

The MASW method was applied along a line of 29.5 m total length. A Geospace MP-25 marine
streamer, consisted of twelve 10 Hz hydrophones at intervals of 1 m, was submerged to the bottom of
the sea for data acquisition. A 12 channel Geode seismograph, a 6 kg sledgehammer and a metallic
plate were also utilized. A water-proof piezoelectric device was used for triggering. 36 records were
acquired using the common shot array and the roll-along technique. The source interval was set to 0.5
m, resulting in 17.5 m Vs pseudo-section. Each record consisted of 2 merged shot gathers, 24 traces at
intervals of 0.5 m and hydrophone length of 11.5 m. This was implemented by keeping fixed the
source position while the streamer was moved on 0.5 m. When the hydrophone streamer reached at
the centre of seismic line, seismic refraction data were also acquired with the source located at the
following positions: 2 before the first, 2 after the last and 11 between the hydrophones. The ERT line,
presented in this work, was surveyed using 33 electrodes equally spaced every 1 m, Syscal-Pro 10-
channel resistivity meter, a multimode marine electrode cable and the dipole-dipole and pole-dipole
arrays. For the pole-dipole array, one of the current electrodes was set at a distance of more than 150
m off-line, embedded in sea bottom. Both, floating and submerged electrode cable positions were
tested for both ERT lines

For the processing of the MASW data the experimental fundamental dispersion curve of each record
was selected amongst the local energy maxima on the frequency – phase velocity (f – c) domain using
the kriSIS algorithms (Kritikakis et al., 2014). Dispersion curve values ranged from about 350 m/s at
35 Hz to 140 m/s at 70 Hz, resulting in surface wave (Scholte-waves) wavelengths from 10 m to 2 m,
respectively. The dispersion curves were inverted using smoothness constraints and the resulted Vs
depth profiles were set at the centre of the hydrophone spreads. According to Park et al. (2000),
treating the Scholte waves as identical to the Rayleigh waves during the inversion analysis does not
appear to significantly degrade the confidence level of the calculated Vs profiles. The distance
between successive Vs profiles on the pseudo-section (Fig. 2) is equal to the source interval (0.5 m).

8th Congress of the Balkan Geophysical Society

4-8 October 2015, Chania, Greece
The first arrivals of seismic refraction data were picked and processed using the seismic tomography
method (Fig. 3). The ERT data that collected using the floating electrode mode were inverted by the
“DC2DPro” program (Kim, 2009), while the data collected using the submerged cable, with the
“Res2DInv” program (Geotomo Software) (Fig. 4).

Four high resistivity anomalies (> 5 Ohm.m), attributed to manmade structures, were detected at 5.5
m, 12.5 m, 18.5 m and 26.5 m along the surveyed line (Fig. 4). The first three anomalies extend to
absolute elevations greater than -2 m, while the fourth -1.5 m. The larger anomaly at 18.5 m coexists
with the mapped outcrop of a building wall (Fig. 1). Seismic tomography results did not reveal any
local target (Fig. 3). However, it shows a lateral variation of P-wave velocity at 18 m where the larger
resistivity anomaly is also observed. S-wave velocity pseudo-section exhibits very low velocity values
(< 150 m/s) at depth less than 1 m below the sea bottom (Fig. 2). Lateral velocity variations (> 150
m/s) within this low velocity layer are in accordance with the high resistivity values in geoelectrical
section (Fig. 4). Higher S-wave velocity values (> 300 m/s) at depth grater than 2 m below the sea
bottom (or elevations -2.5 m at S-SE to 3.0 m at N-NW) attributed to the bedrock. As shown in Fig. 4,
the manmade structure (if really exists) detected at 26.5 m, does not seem to be founded on the
bedrock.

Figure 1 The investigated area in Agioi Theodoroi, Crete, Greece.

8th Congress of the Balkan Geophysical Society

4-8 October 2015, Chania, Greece
Figure 2 S-wave pseudo-section deduced from MASW. The locations of the circled velocity anomalies
are also indicated on the map of Fig. 1.

Figure 3 P-wave tomography section deduced from seismic refraction data (RMS error: 0.084 ms)

Figure 4 Geoelectrical section deduced from the robust inversion of ERT data using submerged pole-
dipole array and Res2DInv software. Black and blue dashed curves were superimposed from the
interpretation of MASW and refraction tomography sections, respectively. The locations of the
squared high resistivity anomalies are also indicated on the map of Fig. 1.

8th Congress of the Balkan Geophysical Society

4-8 October 2015, Chania, Greece
Conclusions - Suggestions

This work demonstrates that ERT as well as MASW are very promising geophysical methods for the
delineation of underwater buried ruins. High resistivity anomalies, which are attributed to building
walls, are in accordance with some of their mapped outcrops. Furthermore, MASW method showed
lateral S-wave velocity variations at the positions where the high resistivity anomalies exist. However,
this does not guarantee that MASW anomalies deduced from the existence of underwater manmade
structures. Further investigation about the validity of the extracted results must be performed. The
depth of the bedrock has been extracted from seismic methods and compared to the depth of the
building foundations.

Surface waves traveling through the shallow sediments (Scholte-waves) demonstrate very low
velocity values. This makes them suitable for the detection of relatively large (> 0.5 m) underwater
manmade structures, providing the use of a high frequency source and thus the creation of relatively
short wavelengths (< 2 m). The use of hydrophone streamer and an automated seismic excitation (i.e.
air-gun) may accelerate MASW method data acquisition. However, the poor lateral resolution and the
intensive processing are significant drawbacks of this method.

Since the preliminary results of the MASW method were encouraged on the visualization of
underwater buried ancient structures, synthetic models or/and controlled real data should be tested,
not only for the verification of the presented results, but also to assist in the selection of the best
acquisition parameters for the design of relative geophysical surveys.

Acknowledgements

This work was performed in the framework of the PEFYKA project within the KRIPIS Action of the
GSRT. The project is funded by Greece and the European Regional Development Fund of the
European Union under the NSRF and the O.P. Competitiveness and Entrepreneurship. This project
comprises a collaboration between the Institute of Mediterranean Studies (Foundation for Research
and Technology, Hellas) and the Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities (Ministry of Culture, Greece).
The authors would like to thank Ephorate of UnderwaterAntiquities for its willing to secure the
permission to conduct this survey as well as I. Moffat and N. Andronikidis for their assistant in data
collection.

References

Grøn, O., and Boldreel, O., L., 2014, Chirping for Large-Scale Maritime Archaeological Survey: A
Strategy Developed from a Practical Experience-Based Approach, Journal of Archaeology,
2014, Article ID, 147390, 11 pages.
Kim, J., H., 2009, DC2DPro-2D interpretation system of DC resistivity tomography. User’s Manual
and Theory, KIGAM, S. Korea.
Kritikakis, G., Vafidis, A., Papakonstantinou, K., and O’Neill, A., 2014, Comparative study of
different inversion techniques applied on Rayleigh surface wave dispersion curves, Near
Surface Geophysics, 12, 3, 361 – 371.
Marinatos S., and Hirmer M., 1986, Kreta, Thera und das mykenische Hellas, Munchen, 20, 136-138.
Park, B., C., Miller, D., R., Xia, J., Ivanov, J., Hunter, A., J., Good, R., L. and Burns, R., A., 2000,
Multichannel analysis of underwater surface waves near Vancouver, B.C., Canada, SEG 2000,
Expanded Abstracts, 1303 – 1306 .
Passaro, S., 2010, Marine electrical resistivity tomography for shipwreck detection in very shallow
water: a case study from Agropoli (Salerno, southern Italy), Journal of Archaeological Science,
37, 1989–1998.
Plets, M-K., R., Dix, K., J., Adams, R., J., Bull, M., J., Henstock, J., T., Gutowski, m., and Best, I., A.,
2009, The use of a high-resolution 3D Chirp sub-bottom profiler for the reconstruction of the
shallow water archaeological site of the Grace Dieu (1439), River Hamble, UK, Journal of
Archaeological Science, 36, 408-418.

8th Congress of the Balkan Geophysical Society

4-8 October 2015, Chania, Greece