Participants have the unique opportunity to be part of a 3-day archeological survey that is planned for Santa Cruz Island.

Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) is a rapidly developing field with a broad array of applications in the geophysical and geotechnical industries and such fields as archeology. The course explores the GPR chain, including basic systems and antennas, data acquisition, processing, and imaging as well as interpretation and characterization.

Special emphasis is on effective subsurface investigation and practical applications. This year’s course focuses on GPR technology as a geophysical tool for archeologists.

Course Approach

GPR concepts are introduced and substantiated with real-world applications. The course presents the basic principals of GPR systems and provides essential information needed to effectively utilize GPR to its full operational value.

Topics discussed are:

• Basic GPR system concepts
• Terms and definitions
• GPR antennas
• Soil properties and effects on GPR
• Data processing techniques and examples
• Various imaging techniques with examples on modeled and measured data

Finally, using several real-world applications, the processing and display of data sets are presented to show the necessary data manipulations from start to end. Data acquired from the field trip to Santa Cruz Island will be processed and analyzed.

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Who Attends

• Practicing scientists, and GPR users broadening their knowledge
• Senior-level students
• Archeologists—academic, private-sector, and government
• Managers of projects that involve GPR
• Anyone getting started in this field

Course Organization

The first day of the course consists of the basics of GPR and a detailed discussion of GPR principles for archeologists. A variety of real-world scenarios are used. The second, third and forth day are field days and camping on Santa Cruz Island, California in the Santa Barbara Channel. The fifth day presents image processing and display techniques and involves applications with the Santa Cruz Island data as well as other data from other archeological sites around the world. Several guest speakers are planned.

Extensive handouts are included in the course fee. Recommended text, Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR): Theory and Applications, edited by Jol and Moorman, Elsevier, expected publication date 2007, is available for purchase by phone at (800) 325-3252, or on the Internet at http://direct.mbsbooks.com/ucsbext.htm.

Topics include

1. System concepts
   1. What is a radar and what is unique about GPR?
   2. How a simple pulsed-GPR operates
   3. Data sampling methods
   4. Brief introduction to step-frequency GPR
   5. Survey design
2. Terms and Definitions
   1. Frequency
   2. Pulse width
   3. Resolution and Bandwidth and the relation to system performance
   4. Sampling rate
3. Soil Properties
   1. Basic wave propagation
   2. Conductivity/resistivity effect on GPR performance
   3. Effects of water
   4. Effects of strata
4. Antennas
   1. Parameters: beam pattern, polarization, directivity
   2. Types of antennas Bow-tie, Dipole, Arrays
   3. Effects of the ground on antenna performance
5. Processing
   1. Basic imaging techniques
   2. Data processing and interpretation
   3. Data display: 2D and 3D
6. Applications
   1. a. Archeology
   2. b. Other pertinent applications such as Sedimentology and Forensics
   3. c. GPR feasibility and costs
7. Background on Santa Cruz Island
   1. The archeological history
   2. Significant findings and prior research
   3. Preliminary GPR tests

Santa Cruz Island Background

Santa Cruz Island is located in Santa Barbara County and located 20 miles (33.9 km.) from the mainland. Santa Cruz is California's largest island. It is approximately 24 miles long and up to 6 miles wide (32 km. by 9 km.) totaling 96 square miles (249 sq. km.). Many historic buildings dot the landscape of Santa Cruz and mirror tales of its inhabitants. Adobe ranch houses, barns, blacksmith and saddle shops, wineries, and a chapel all attest to the many uses of Santa Cruz in the 1800s and 1900s. Christi Ranch, where the class will be camping, is a cluster of old ranch buildings, the oldest of which was built sometime in the 1850s.

According to legend, Santa Cruz Island was named for a priest's staff accidentally left on the island during the Portola expedition of 1769. A Chumash Indian found the cross-tipped stave and returned it to the priest. The Spaniards were so impressed that they called this island of friendly people “La Isla de Santa Cruz”, the Island of the Sacred Cross.

Prior to Spanish exploration and the ranching days, the island was known as “Limuw” to the resident Chumash Indians. A dozen villages housed nearly 2,000 people, many of them producing “shell-bead money” used as a major trade item by tribes throughout California. Large plank canoes, called “tomols,” provided transportation between the islands and mainland. Remnants of their civilization can still be seen in thousands of “shell middens” on the island.

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