Not only the ‘Gold Train' – the ‘Underground Town' of Riese (Poland) – the ambiguity of interpretation ERT and GPR methods
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12430333 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Bernadetta Pasierb (0000-0001-5616-7289, Faculty of Environmental and Power Engineering Cracow University of Technology Kraków Poland, corresponding author), Wiesław Nawrocki (Zakład Badań Nieniszczących KPG Kraków Poland) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 27 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 361-375 |
| Publication date | 2020-05-25 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Archaeological Prospection (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1075-2196 • E-ISSN: 1099-0763 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1002/arp.1779 |
| OpenAlex | W3029201737 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 26 |
This article presents the results of a geophysical survey conducted in the Sowie Mountains within the Walim commune (Poland) in order to verify the discovery of the ‘Underground Town' of Riese. Project Riese was the biggest mining and construction project of Nazi Germany. The facility was designed as a convenient and secure location for a headquarters, an armaments factory, and warehouses for goods stolen during World War II. The discovery was made in 2015 with the application of the mysterious KS‐700 apparatus, the same as was used to ‘discover' the ‘Gold Train', which is ground penetrating radar (GPR) according to the manufacturer. It was one of the reasons why the verification surveys of the underground sites and the KS‐700 apparatus made use of the GPR method. The depth range of the GPR method was limited to 5 m due to the strong attenuation of electromagnetic waves. It was thus concluded that the underground structures detected by the ‘discoverers' were probably a result of apparatus errors, in which near‐surface reflections are received repeatedly and recorded as returning from a depth far greater than the actual object. Therefore, the electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) method proved to be conclusive. The three obtained characteristics and extremely high‐resistivity anomalies indicated the existence of underground tunnels. A thorough analysis of the results and acquired data, as well as of the literature, has proven that it is impossible to interpret them unambiguously as data from the subsurface but as a result of the influence of the surrounding objects. At other sites where the KS‐700 apparatus recorded numerous ‘underground cavities', the ERT cross‐sections did not yield a correlated image. Additionally, neither the analysis of the local geological structure with regard to the existence of an underground town nor the drilled boreholes confirmed the ‘discoverer's' results
Ambiguity · Electrical engineering · Electrical resistivity and conductivity · Electrical Resistivity Tomography · Ground-Penetrating Radar · Interpretation (philosophy · Mining engineering · Radar · Romanian · Telecommunications · Computer Science · Engineering · Geophysical and Geoelectrical Methods · Geophysical Methods and Applications · Seismic Waves and Analysis · Geology
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| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,8 |
| Citation span | 2021 - 2026 (6) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |