Imaging and locating paleo-channels using geophysical data from meandering system of the Mun River, Khorat Plateau, Northeastern Thailand

The Khorat Plateau from northeast Thailand, the upstream part of the Mun River flows through clastic sedimentary rocks. A massive amount of sand was transported. We aimed to understand the evolution of fluvial system and to discuss the advantages of two shallow geophysical methods for describing sub...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inOpen Geosciences Vol. 9; no. 1; pp. 675 - 688
Main Authors Nimnate, P., Thitimakorn, T., Choowong, M., Hisada, K.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Warsaw De Gruyter Open 29.12.2017
De Gruyter Poland
De Gruyter
Subjects
Accretion
Boreholes
Electrical resistivity
ERT
floodplain
Floodplains
Fluvial sediments
GPR
Lithology
meandered scar
paleo-channel
Physical properties
Radar
Rivers
Sand
Sedimentary rocks
Sedimentary structures
Thailand
Mun River
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Summary:The Khorat Plateau from northeast Thailand, the upstream part of the Mun River flows through clastic sedimentary rocks. A massive amount of sand was transported. We aimed to understand the evolution of fluvial system and to discuss the advantages of two shallow geophysical methods for describing subsurface morphology of modern and paleo-channels. We applied Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) and Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) to characterize the lateral, vertical morphological and sedimentary structures of paleo-channels, floodplain and recent point bars. Both methods were interpreted together with on-sites boreholes to describe the physical properties of subsurface sediments. As a result, we concluded that four radar reflection patterns including reflection free, shingled, inclined and hummocky reflections were appropriated to apply as criteria to characterize lateral accretion, the meandering rivers with channel-filled sequence and floodplain were detected from ERT profiles. The changes in resistivity correspond well with differences in particle size and show relationship with ERT lithological classes. Clay, silt, sand, loam and bedrock were classified by the resistivity data. Geometry of paleo-channel embayment and lithological differences can be detected by ERT, whereas GPR provides detail subsurface facies for describing point bar sand deposit better than ERT.
ISSN:2391-5447
2391-5447
DOI:10.1515/geo-2017-0051