Ground-penetrating radar and electrical resistivity tomography for mapping bedrock topography and fracture zones: a case study in Viru-Nigula, NE Estonia

The Geological Base Map (GBM), presenting an elongated buried valley running beneath the Varudi bog, triggered the geophysical studies near Viru-Nigula borough in northeastern Estonia. After the Geological Survey of Estonia had compiled the GBM map set, the course and extent of the valley still remained indistinct. Principally the morphology of the Varudi valley had been determined just by one borehole characterizing the 30 m thick Quaternary succession within the valley. The thickness of Quaternary sediments is, however, just a few metres in adjacent boreholes. We used ground-penetrating radar and electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) for acquiring extra knowledge about the extent and morphology of the Varudi structure. Ground-penetrating radar enabled us to specify the thickness and composition of Quaternary deposits, and to recognize dislocations of the bedrock blocks. As the radar images provided information on the topmost similar to 4 m only, ERT (Wenner and Wenner-Schlumberger arrays) was applied to define deeper, down to 40 m, electrical resistivity anomalies. The ERT studies revealed two fracture zones where regular Ordovician carbonate beds have been crushed and replaced by Quaternary sediments. The Varudi valley coincides with the southern zone. Both fracture zones probably acted as groundwater flow channels and sediment pathways in the Late Pleistocene, and hence supported the creation of the Varudi bog.