Registering the ground deformations at the area of the archaeological site “Solnitsata”

Abstract

[EN] In this paper we used synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data to investigate the surface displacements in the area of archaeological site Solnitsata dated VI-V millennium BC. The researched zone is situated in the neighborhood of the Provadia town, NE Bulgaria found and is considered to be one of the most ancient in Europe. Close to it the industrial Mirovo salt deposit is located. From decadal observations it was established that in the area of both sites there are ground motions due to local tectonic movements (several faults are closely located) and active exploitation of the orebody. To study the geodynamic processes in this zone for the period 2015 – 2020 the Differential Interferometry Synthetic Aperture Radar (DInSAR) method was used for their registration. The results presented are from processing SAR data from ESA’s Sentinel-1 mission and coincide with the results obtained by geodetic measurements. Definite advantage of the used technique is the possibility to deliver information for much larger areas than the one provided by geodetic measurements. Other plus of the method is the availability of results regardless of the weather conditions.