What are some practical uses of ground penetrating radar?

Question

I have been reading some things on ground penetrating radar (GPR), what are some practical uses of it in modern society?

Answer 1

Oil exploration, probably. The drilling itself is very expensive and this is why geologists are required to assay a potential drill site before any work starts. Without some kind of technology, it is impossible to know if a well shaft will yield any oil or gas. Radar allows geologists to look inside the earth and judge the underground geology of a region. If it is typical of oil bearing sites, then there is a good possibility the wells will yield oil.

Answer 2

You can map where there's water and other resources.  It's been used to find impact craters of ancient strikes.  The military has used it to map underground bunkers.

Answer 3

I work as an environmental geologist and we use GPR to find utilities, buried fuel tanks, and unexploded ordnance.  GPR works great for the the first two, but not so great for the last one (UXO) as the energy pulse can sometimes detonate the buried ordnance.

Answer 4

The major practical use and the reason it was invented was to find land mines.  There are literally millions of land mines in the world waiting to be destructive to the innocent.  Every day people are losing limbs to mines that were left over from wars that ended long ago.  In fact, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded in 1997 to people who are trying to rid the world of these little bits of evil technology.