Review of Environmental and Geological Microgravity Applications and Feasibility of Its Employment at Archaeological Sites in Israel

Abstract

Microgravity investigations are widely applied at present for solving various environmental and geological problems. Unfortunately, microgravity survey is comparatively rarely used for searching for hidden ancient targets. It is caused mainly by small geometric size of the desired archaeological objects and various types of noise complicating the observed useful signal. At the same time, development of modern generation of field gravimetric equipment allows to register promptly and digitally microGal (10-8 m/s2) anomalies that offer a new challenge in this direction. An advanced methodology of gravity anomalies analysis and modern 3D modeling, intended for ancient targets delineation, is briefly presented. It is supposed to apply in archaeological microgravity the developed original methods for the surrounding terrain relief computing. Calculating second and third derivatives of gravity potential are useful for revealing some closed peculiarities of the different Physical-Archaeological Models (PAMs). It is underlined that physical measurement of vertical gravity derivatives in archaeological studying has a significant importance and cannot be replaced by any transformation methods. Archaeological targets in Israel have been ranged by their density/geometrical characteristics in several groups. The performed model computations indicate that microgravity investigations might be successfully applied at least in 20–25% of archaeological sites in Israel.

From Micro- to Satellite Gravity: Understanding the Earth

“…A chart showing the different types of typical noise factors is presented in Figure 1 (after [16]). These types of noise are described in more detail below.…”

“…Corrections for the atmosphere deserve special attention in microgravity investigations, since the air layer Figure 1. A generalized block-scheme of noise in gravity investigations (modified after [16]). attraction is different at various levels over and below the m.s.l.…”

“…Hence, a special methodology is required for gravimetric quantitative anomaly interpretation in the conditions of rugged relief [16]. 0005 …”

“…Thus, we can apply the advanced interpreting methodologies developed in magnetic prospecting for complex environments [11,16] to gravity field analysis. For instance, we can interpret anomalies from the gravity HCC by formulas employed in the magnetic TB (improved tangent, characteristic point and areal methods).…”

Remote Sensing Applications in Archaeological Research

“…As such, the resolution of the method is dependent on the size and volume of the targets and requires tedious corrections and processing (such as drift correction, latitude correction, free air correction, Bouguer correction, etc) as measurements are influenced by the regional or even local trends. A recent review of archaeological, environmental and geological microgravity applications has been provided recently by Eppelbaum (2011).…”