Combined ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and electrical resistivity applications exploring groundwater potential zones in granitic terrain

Frequent failures of monsoons have forced to opt the groundwater as the only source of irrigation in non-command areas. Groundwater exploration in granitic terrain of dry land agriculture has been a major concern for farmers and water resource authorities. The hydrogeological complexities and lack of understanding of the aquifer systems have resulted in the failure of a majority of the borehole drillings in India. Hence, a combination of geophysical tools comprising ground-penetrating radar (GPR), multielectrode resistivity imaging (MERI), and vertical electrical sounding (VES) has been employed for pinpointing the groundwater potential zones in dry land agricultural of granitic terrain in India. Results obtained and verified with each other led to the detection of a saturated fracture within the environs. In GPR scanning, a 40-MHz antenna is used with specifications of 5 dielectric constant, 600 scans/nS, and 40 m depth. The anomalies acquired on GPR scans at various depths are confirmed with low-resistivity ranges of 27-50 a"broken vertical bar m at 23 and 27 m depths obtained from the MERI. Further, drilling with a down-the-hole hammer was carried out at two recommended sites down to 50-70 m depth, which were complimentary of VES results. The integrated geophysical anomalies have good agreement with the drilling lithologs validating the MERI and GPR data. The yields of these bore wells varied from 83 to 130 l/min. This approach is possible and can be replicated by water resource authorities in thrust areas of dry land environs of hard rock terrain around the world.