Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Waterborne GPR mapping of stratigraphic boundaries and turbidite sediments beneath the bottom of Lake Polevskoye, Karelia, NW Russia

  • Original paper
  • Published:
Journal of Paleolimnology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

We used waterborne Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) for mapping stratigraphic boundaries, sedimentation environments, and specific features of lacustrine sediments of postglacial Lake Polevskoye, which is located in Eastern Fennoscandia, near Lake Onega. The purpose of our study was to examine the spatial structure of the lacustrine sediments including particular facies represented by the thin interbedding of sand and clay in order to understand the conditions for their formation. The lake bottom morphology and stratigraphic boundaries beneath were mapped with a GPR with 150 MHz antenna unit and then made drill holes to verify GPR interpretations. The GPR measurements, verified by drilling, have vertical accuracy in the range of 0.12–0.36 m. We delineation specific GPR facies in the topmost part of varved clays and classified them as lacustrine turbidites by their structure and grain size. Further studies suggested that turbidites could be deposited by hyperpycnal flows during water discharge from glacial Lake Onega in the period 11.4–10.7 cal ka BP. The architectural implications of the turbidity current in the lake include localized layered sediments 0.5 m thick overlying an erosional surface, which contain unconformable sandy layers and plant debris. A GPR-based 3D model helped us to reconstruct the turbidity current direction, establish its confinement to a lake bottom depression, and consider the associated erosion processes. The near-bottom turbidity current passed through Lake Polevskoye from north to south, along with the bottom depression, and the eastern shore was eroded with a hydraulic jump. The hyperpycnal flows in the study site are associated probably with the last phase deglaciation of the terrain and a drop of the level of Lake Onega because these processes were the most prominent in recent geological history.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Aksu HH, Kanbur MZ, Görmüş M (2017) Investigation of the Kumdanli and surrounding faults on the Eğirdir Lake by conducting ground penetrating radar (GPR) profiles. Arab J Geosci 10:387

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aleshin MI, Gaynanov VG, Tokarev MJ, Rybalko AE, Subetto DA (2019) The study of sub-bottom sediments in Petrozavodsk bay of Lake Onega using complex geological-geophysical methods of data analysis. Moscow Univer Geol Bull 74(5):525–531

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Annan AP (2003) Ground penetrating radar: principles, procedures and applications, Sensors & Software Inc., Technical paper, Mississauga, 286 pp

  • Annan AP, Davis JL (1977) Impulse radar applied to ice thickness measurements and fresh water bathymetry: Rep Act Part B Geol Surv Canada 7:63–65

  • Arcone SA (2018) Sedimentary architecture beneath lakes subjected to storms: control by turbidity current bypass and turbidite armouring, interpreted from ground-penetrating radar images. Sedimentology 65(5):1413–1446

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arcone SA, Finnegan DC, Liu L (2006) Target interaction with stratigraphy beneath shallow, frozen lakes: quarter-wave resonances within GPR profiles. Geophysics 71:K119–K131

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arcone SA, Finnegan D, Boitnott G (2010) GPR characterization of a lacustrine UXO site. Geophysics 75:WA221–WA239

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Banks WSL, Johnson CD (2011) Collection, processing, and interpretation of ground-penetrating radar data to determine sediment thickness at selected locations in Deep Creek Lake, Garrett County, Maryland, 2007: US Geol Survey Sci Investig, Rep 5223

  • Beauprêtre S, Manighetti I, Garambois S, Malavieille J, Dominguez S (2013) Stratigraphic architecture and fault offsets of alluvial terraces at Te Marua, Wellington fault, New Zealand, revealed by pseudo-3D GPR investigation. J Geol Res Solid Earth 118:4564–4585

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beres M, Haeni FP (1991) Application of Ground-penetrating-radar methods in hydrogeologic studies. Ground Water 29(3):375–386

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blott SJ, Pye K (2001) GRADISTAT: a grain size distribution and statistics package for the analysis of unconsolidated sediments. Earth Surf Process Landforms 26:1237–1248

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Buynevich IV, Fitzgerald DM (2003) High-resolution subsurface (GPR) imaging and sedimentology of coastal ponds, Maine, U.S.A.: implications for Holocene back-barrier evolution. J Sediment Res 73(4):559–571

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Corradini E, Wilken D, Zanon M, Groß D, Lübke H, Panning D, Dörfler W, Rusch K, Mecking R, Erkul E, Pickartz N, Feeser I, Rabbel W (2020) Reconstructing the palaeoenvironment at the early Mesolithic site of Lake Duvensee: ground-penetrating radar and geoarchaeology for 3D facies mapping. The Holocene 30(6):820–833

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Costa JE, Cheng RT, Haeni FP, Melcher NB, Spicer KR, Hayes E, Hayes K, Plant WJ, Teague C, Barrick D (2006) Use of radars to monitor stream discharge by noncontact methods. Water Resour Res 42:W07422

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dara R, Kettridge N, Rivett MO, Krause S, Gomez-Ortiz D (2019) Identification of floodplain and riverbed sediment heterogeneity in a meandering UK lowland stream by ground penetrating radar. J Appl Geophys 171:103863

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davis JL, Annan AP (1989) Ground-penetrating radar for high-resolution mapping of soil and rock stratigraphy. Geophys Prospect 37:531–551

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Demidov IN (2005) Degradatsiya pozdnevaldaiskogo oledeneniya v basseine Onezhskogo ozera [Degradation of the Late Valdai Glaciation in the basin of Lake Onega, in Russian]. Geologiya i Poleznye Iskopayemye Karelii 8:134–142

    Google Scholar 

  • Demidov IN (2006) Identification of marker horizon in bottom sediments of the Onega periglacial lake. Dokl Earth Sci 407(2):213–216

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Demidov I, Houmark-Nielsen M, Kjær K, Larsen E (2006) The last Scandinavian ice sheet in Northwestern Russia: ice flow patterns and decay dynamics. Boreas 35:425–443

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fischer TG, Loope WL, Pierce W, Jol HM (2007) Big lake records preserved in a little lake’s sediment: an example from Silver Lake, Michigan, USA. J Paleolimnol 37:365–382

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Folk RL, Ward WC (1957) Brazos river bar: a study in the significance of grain size parameters. J Sediment Petrol 27:3–26

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Girard F, Ghienne J-F, Rubino J-L (2012) Channelized sandstone bodies (‘cordons’) in the Tassili N’Ajjer (Algeria&Libya): snapshots of a late Ordovician proglacial outwash plain. Geol Soc London Spec Publ 368:355–379

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grasmueck M, Weger R, Horstmeyer H (2004) Three-dimensional ground-penetrating radar imaging of sedimentary structures, fractures, and archaeological features at submeter resolution. Geology 32(11):933–936

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haeni FP, McKeegan DK, Capron DR (1987) Ground penetrating radar study of the thickness and extent of sediments beneath Silver Lake, Berlin and Meriden, Connecticut: report water-resources investigations, U.S. Geological Survey, Report 85- 4108, U.S. Geological Survey, Hartford, Connecticut, 19 pp

  • Hage S, Hubert-Ferrari A, Lamair L, Avşar U, El Ouahabi M, van Daele M, Boulvain F, Bahri M, Seret A, Plenevaux A (2017) Flow dynamics at the origin of thin clayey sand lacustrine turbidites: Examples from Lake Hazar, Turkey. Sedimentology 64:1929–1956

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hang T, Gurbich V, Subetto D, Strakhovenko V, Potakhin M, Belkina N, Zobkov M (2019) A local clay-varve chronology of Onega Ice lake, NW Russia. Quatern Int 524:13–23

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hunter L, Ferrick M, Collins C (2003) Monitoring sediment infilling at the Ship Creek Reservoir, Fort Richardson, Alaska, using GPR. Geol Soc London Spec Publ 211:199–206

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Krylov SS, Bobrov NY, Pryakhina GV, Bricheva SS, Ionov VV (2014) Peculiarities of distribution and transformation of water in the Keret’ River tidal estuary. Russ Meteorol Hydrol 39(10):677–684

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lachhab A, Booterbaugh A, Beren M (2015) Bathymetry and sediment accumulation of Walker lake, PA Using two GPR antennas in a New Integrated Method. JEEG 20(3):245–255

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lukashov AD (1995) Paleoseismotectonics in the Northern Part of Lake Onega (Zaonezhsky Peninsula, Russian Karelia) (Nuclear Waste Disposal Research Report YST-90). Geol Surv Finland, Espoo, 36 p

  • Lyså A, Jensen MA, Larsen E, Fredin O, Demidov IN (2011) Ice-distal landscape and sediment signatures evidencing damming and drainage of large pro-glacial lakes, Northwest Russia. Boreas 40:481–497

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mangerud J, Jakobsson M, Alexanderson H, Astakhov V, Clarke G, Henriksen M, Hjort C, Krinner G, Lunkka J-P, Möller P, Murray A, Nikolskaya O, Saarnisto M, Svendsen J (2004) Ice-dammed lakes and rerouting of the drainage of northern Eurasia during the Last Glaciation. Quatern Sci Rev 23:1313–1332

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Melcher NB, Costa JE, Haeni FP, Cheng RT, Thurman EM, Buursink MK, Spicer R, Hayes E, Plant WJ, Keller WC, Hayes K (2002) River discharge measurements by using helicopter-mounted radar. Geophys Res Lett 29(22):2084

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mertes JR, Thompson SS, Booth AD, Gulley JD, Benn DI (2017) A conceptual model of supraglacial lake formation on debris-covered glaciers based on GPR facies analysis. Earth Surf Process Landforms 42(6):903–914

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mihu-Pintilie A, Asandulesei A, Nicu IC, Stoleriu CC, Romanescu G (2016) Using GPR for assessing the volume of sediments from the largest natural dam lake of the Eastern Carpathians: Cuejdel lake. Romania Environ Earth Sci 75:710

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moorman BJ (2002) Ground-penetrating radar applications in paleolimnology. In: Last WM, Smol JP (eds) Tracking environmental change using lake sediments. Developments in paleoenvironmental research, vol 1. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 23–47

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Moorman BJ, Michel FA (1997) Bathymetric mapping and sub-bottom profiling through lake ice with ground-penetrating radar. J Paleolimnol 18(1):61–73

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mulder T, Alexander J (2001) The physical character of subaqueous sedimentary density flows and their deposits. Sedimentology 48:269–299

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mulder T, Chapron E (2011) Flood deposits in continental and marine environments: Character and significance. In: Slatt RM, Zavala C (eds) Sediment transfer from shelf to deep water—Revisiting the delivery system: AAPG Studies in Geology, Tulsa, vol 61. pp. 1–30

  • Neal A (2004) Ground-penetrating radar and its use in sedimentology: principles, problems and progress. Earth-Sci Rev 66(3):261–330

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Normark WR, Piper DJW (1991) Initiation processes and flow evolution of turbidity currents: implications for the depositional record. In: Osborne RH (ed) From Shoreline to Abyss. Contribution in Marine Geology in Honor of Francis Parker Shepard, SEPM (Society for Sedimentary Geology). Special Publication, Tulsa, vol 46, pp 207–230

  • Ojala A, Mattila J, Virtasalo J, Kuva J, Luoto T (2018) Seismic deformation of varved sediments in southern Fennoscandia at 7400 cal BP. Tectonophysics 744:58–71

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Osleger DA, Heyvaert AC, Stoner JS, Verosub KL (2009) Lacustrine turbidites as indicators of Holocene storminess and climate: lake Tahoe. California and Nevada J Paleolimnol 42:103–122

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Passega R (1957) Texture as characteristic of Clastlc deposition. Amer Assoc Petroleum Geologists Bull 41(9):1952–1984

    Google Scholar 

  • Passega R (1964) Grain size representation by CM patterns as a geological tool. J Sedim Petrol 34:830–847

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Qin T, Yonghui Z, Guocong L, Shufan H, Cong A, Dexiang G, Rao C (2018) Underwater archaeological investigation using ground penetrating radar: a case analysis of Shanglinhu Yue Kiln sites (China). J Appl Geophys 154:11–19

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rodionov AI, Ryazantsev PA (2018) GPR study of sapropel deposits in Karelian shallow water areas. Proceedings 17th international conference on ground penetrating radar, Rapperswil, pp. 1–4

  • Rodionov AI, Nikolaeva SB, Ryazantsev PA (2018) Evaluation of GPR capabilities in the study of seismogenic faulting and deformation in the bottom sediments of Lake Upoloksha (northeast of the Fennoscandian shield). Geodyn Tectonophys 9(4):1189–1203

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Saarnisto M, Saarinen T (2001) Deglaciation chronology of the Scandinavian ice sheet from east of lake Onega basin to the Salpausselkä end moraines. Glob Planet Change 31:387–405

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sambuelli L, Bava S (2012) Case study: a GPR survey on a morainic lake in northern Italy for bathymetry, water volume and sediment characterization. J Appl Geophys 81:48–56

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sambuelli L, Butler KE (2009) Foreword, in special issue on high resolution geophysics for shallow water. Near Surface Geophys 7(4):3–4

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sambuelli L, Colombo N, Giardino M, Godone D (2015) A waterborne GPR survey to estimate fine sediments volume and find optimum core location in a Rockglacier lake. In: Proceeding of Near Surface Geoscience 2015 – 21st European Meeting of Environmental and Engineering Geophysics, European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers, Vol 2015. pp 1–5

  • Sambuelli L, Comina C, Bava S, Piatti C (2011) Magnetic, electrical, and GPR waterborne surveys of moraine deposits beneath a lake: a case history from Turin Italy. Geophys 76(6):B213–B224

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schillereff DN, Chiverrell RC, Macdonald N, Hooke JM (2014) Flood stratigraphies in lake sediments: a review. Earth-Sci Rev 135:17–37

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schneider J-L, Pollet N, Chapron E, Wessels M, Wassmer P (2004) Signature of rhine valley sturzstrom dam failures in holocene sediments of lake constance, Germany. Sediment Geol 169:75–91

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schwamborn GJ, Dix JK, Bull JM, Rachold V (2002) High-resolution seismic and ground penetrating radar–geophysical profiling of a thermokarst lake in the Western Lena Delta, Northern Siberia. Permafrost Periglac Proc 13:259–269

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sellmann PV, Delaney AJ, Arcone SA (1992) Sub-bottom surveying in lakes with ground-penetrating radar. CRREL Report 92-8, U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratories, Hanover, 18 pp

  • Shelekhova TS (2014) Geomorphology and Quaternary deposits of Zaonezhye. Biogeography, landscapes, ecosystems and species of Zaonezhye Peninsula, in Lake Onega, Russian Karelia. Reports of the Finnish Environment Institute, Helsinki, pp 35–40

    Google Scholar 

  • Shelekhova TS, Subetto DA (2006) Diatomovye vodorosli donnykh otlozhenii ozer zaonezh’’ya: otsenka sovremennogo sostoyaniya ozer, rekonstruktsiya izmeneniya urovnya Onezhskogo ozera [Diatoms in the bottom sediments of zaonezhye lakes: assessment of the present state of the lakes and reconstruction of Lake Onego level variations, in Russian]. Proc KarRC RAS 5:88–105

    Google Scholar 

  • Shuman B, Bravo J, Kaye J, Lynch JA, Newby P, Webb T (2001) Late-quaternary water-level variations and vegetation history at Crooked Pond, Southeastern Massachusetts. Quat Res 56:401–410

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Starovoytov A, Tokarev M, Marchenko A, Subetto D, Rybalko A, Aleshin M (2016) Vozmozhnosti georadiolokacii pri izuchenii chetvertichnyh otlozhenij v ozerah Karelii [GPR potential when investigating quaternary deposits in lakes of Karelia, in Russian]. Proc KarRC RAS 5:62–75

    Google Scholar 

  • Starovoytov AV, Valiullina KZ, Oshkin AN, Pyatilova AM (2020) The structure of the sedimentary cover in freshwater lakes of the Kindo Peninsula near the White Sea Biological station of Moscow state university according to data of ground penetration radar and boring. Moscow Univer Geol Bull 75(1):86–96

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stevens CW, Moorman BJ, Solomon SM, Hugenholtz CH (2009) Mapping subsurface conditions within near-shore zones of an Arctic delta using ground penetrating radar. Cold Reg Sci Technol 56:30–38

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stow DAV, Shanmugam G (1980) Sequences of fine grained turbidites – comparison of recent deep-sea and ancient flysch sequences. Sed Geol 25:23–42

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Subetto DA (2009) Lake bottom sediments: paleolimnological reconstructions. Publishing House of the Herzen State Pedagogical University, Saint-Petersburg, Scientific monograph

    Google Scholar 

  • Subetto DA, Nazarova LB, Pestryakova LA, Syrykh LS, Andronikov AV, Biskaborn B, Diekmann B, Kuznetsov DD, Sapelko TV, Grekov IM (2017) Paleolimnological studies in Russian Northern Eurasia: a review. Contemp Probl Ecol 10(4):327–335

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Talling PJ, Sumner EJ, Masson DG, Malgesini G (2012) Subaqueous sediment density flows: depositional processes and deposit types. Sedimentology 59(7):1937–2003

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turner AJ, Woodward J, Dunning SA, Shine AJ, Stokes SR, Cofaigh C (2012) Geophysical surveys of the sediments of Loch Ness, Scotland: implications for the deglaciation of the Moray Firth Ice Stream. British-Irish Ice Sheet J Quaternary Sci 27(2):221–232

    Google Scholar 

  • van Heteren S, Fitzgerald DM, McKinlay PA, Buynevich IV (1998) Radar facies of paraglacial barrier systems: coastal New England, USA. Sedimentology 45:181–200

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yao X, Liu S, Sun M, Junfeng W, Guo W (2012) Volume calculation and analysis of the changes in moraine-dammed lakes in the north Himalaya: a case study of Longbasaba Lake. J Glaciol 58:753–760

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zavala C, Arcuri M (2016) Intrabasinal and extrabasinal turbidites: origin and distinctive characteristics. Sediment Geol 337:36–54

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zavala C, Pan SX (2018) Hyperpycnal flows and hyperpycnites: origin and distinctive characteristics. Lithol Reserv 30(1):1–27

    Google Scholar 

  • Zobkov M, Potakhin M, Subetto D, Tarasov A (2019) Reconstructing Lake Onego  evolution during and after the late weichselian glaciation with special reference to water volume and area estimations. J Paleolimnol 62(1):53–71

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zolitschka B (1996) High resolution lacustrine sediments and their potential for palaeoclimatic reconstruction. In: Jones PD, Bradly RS, Jouzel J (eds) Climate variations and forcing mechanism of the last 2000 years. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, NATO ASI Series, pp 454–478

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The study was supported by the Russian Science Foundation, Grant 18-17-00176 (50%, field works and data analysis) and the research project of the Institute of Geology of the Karelian Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences (50%, materials and equipment, samples analysis).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Geology of the Karelian Research Center of the RAS, Petrozavodsk, Russia

    P. Ryazantsev & A. Rodionov

  2. Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia, Saint-Petersburg, Russia

    D. Subetto

  3. Northern Water Problem Institute of the Karelian Research Center of the RAS, Petrozavodsk, Russia

    D. Subetto

Authors
  1. P. Ryazantsev
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. A. Rodionov
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. D. Subetto
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to P. Ryazantsev.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Ryazantsev, P., Rodionov, A. & Subetto, D. Waterborne GPR mapping of stratigraphic boundaries and turbidite sediments beneath the bottom of Lake Polevskoye, Karelia, NW Russia. J Paleolimnol 66, 261–277 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-021-00205-w

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-021-00205-w

Keywords

Search

Navigation