SEGJ Technical Conference


Survey of automobiles buried by land slide in Kurikoma area by RTK-GPS EMI


Abstract
17 people were killed and 6 people are still missing by the Iwate-Miyagi Nairiku Earthquake occurred in June 2008. Most of the disaster were caused by landslides in mountain side in Miyagi prefecture, North Japan. In order to detect automobiles buried in deep soil, we developed a system combining a metal detector-EMI sensors- for UXO detection with RTK-GPS, which can visualize the metal detector response. Due to the high accuracy of the positioning by RTK-GPS, 3D visualization of the metal detector response on the steep slope of 50m in width by 150m in height at maximum 45 degree was obtained. We found that we can roughly identify the shape of the buried metal objects, and therefore we could discriminate larger objects from metal fragments such as reinforcement bars in concrete blocks. We identified three possible points where cars can be buried in that area. This area was excavated in August 2010. We found that the sided soil is not thicker than 2m, and automobiles may not be buried in this area. We found metallic poles used for guard of roads are found in the positions that our survey has determined by EMI sensors.