Aeolian Processes of the “Dead Dunes”, Nagliai Nature Reserve, Lithuania : A Ground Penetrating Radar Investigation

Abstract

The Nagliai Nature Reserve protects a large aeolian (wind-blown) dune field known as the “Dead” dunes which over time has buried four villages and two old cemetery sites. Dead (Mirusios), or Gray (Pilkosios) dunes are large sand hills (> 60 m) built by strong winds coming onshore from the Baltic Sea. The Reserve also protects habitats for rare plants. Human activity is limited to a single trail within the Reserve except for scientific observations. In collaboration with the Vilnius University and the Reserve, multiple ground penetrating radar transects were collected to image the internal structure of the Dead dunes to better understand their formation and to test the ability of GPR to map paleosols in this environment. GPR is a non-invasive imaging system which can give insight into the earth below the surface and is based on the propagation and reflection of pulsed electromagnetic energy. Data was collected using a pulseEKKO 1000 GPR system with topographic data collected for each transect using a TopCon RL-H3CL laser level. Using radar stratigraphic principles to guide the interpretation of the processed transects resulted in observing inclined reflections (prograding) and sub horizontal reflections (paleosols). The project provides an initial “look” inside these unique aeolian environments.