Subaqueous geomorphology: options, tasks, needs

The purpose of the paper is to present the potentialities of current non-invasive methods for bottom surveys, including cartometric presentation of its relief and structure in both marine and inland reservoirs. The paper presents examples of results obtained in the Maritime Institute in Gdańsk during surveys carried out at the bottom of seas, lakes and rivers with the use of the same apparatus: primarily, a multibeam echosounder (MBES) to obtain a digital terrain model (DTM); a side-scan sonar (SSS) to obtain a general image of the nature of the bottom (its “roughness”); and seismic profiling (sub-bottom profiler, sediment echo sounder [SES]) to recognise the structure of the bottom. The obtained results constitute a necessary basis for carrying out further specialist surveys (non-invasive or invasive) when needed. Current bottom survey options that use MBES, SSS and SES may be treated as subaqueous equivalents of the subaerial potentialities of a land surface survey using LiDaR and GPR (Ground Penetration Radar)

Environmental supervision of the 20 century shipwrecks using the example of the remains of vessel SS Stuttgart - case study of the usefulness of obtained data in the context of archaeological work and the protection of underwater cultural heritage

This brief article discusses the matter of iron and steel shipwrecks in the context of the remains of vessel SS Stuttgart, and its environmental research conducted by scientists from Maritime Institute in Gdańsk. Her shipwreck is on the Polish list of 28 wrecks being treated for environmental reasons in the Polish part of South Baltic. At the present SS Stuttgart is most dangerous sunken object on the Polish coast. She was taking part in the 2nd World War. As such they are interesting objects which can be used in the studies of underwater archaeology of the contemporary past. The authors focus on their possible use in archaeology of the data obtained during oceanographic and hydrographic research

The use of acoustic and magnetic methods in the search for archaeological objects through the example of Lednica lake

Noninvasive surveys and prospections are a new dynamic trend in contemporary archaeology. They represent a trend of multidisciplinary analyses of cultural heritage. Due to limited access to technology, these methods are still not widely used in underwater archaeology, in particular in inland reservoirs. For this reason a team from the Department of Underwater Archaeology of the Institute of Archaeology at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń in cooperation with the Maritime Institute in Gdańsk, the Museum of the First Piasts at Lednica and the Scientific Association of Polish Archaeologists (Warsaw branch), planned and completed a project Kolebka Piastów — archeologiczne prospekcje podwodne w rejonie jeziora Lednickiego in 2017. The project was financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage under the following programme: Cultural heritage, priority: The protection of archaeological monuments. In the course of the project a multibeam probe, a subbottom profiler and a magnetometer were used to conduct surveys. If the conditions and assumptions of the project allowed, a direct underwater verification was conducted. Due to multibeam sonar it is possible to obtain a reliable spatial picture of a lake bottom in high resolution, e.g. 100 or more measurement points for each m2 of the bottom, which enables one to conduct a detailed overview of a surface of the research area and objects lying on it. This method turned out to be the most effective during verification and resulted in the localization of a new medieval bridge in Lednica lake. Using a subbottom sediment profiler is at the moment the only noninvasive method of searching for non-magnetic objects sunk into the bottom. After applying it on a recognized object, such as the Poznań bridge, and after receiving the positive results, it may be assumed — with high probability — that this technology will succeed in the search for other wooden archaeological structures located in subbottom sediments. Magnetometric measurements are the next technology which was used in the researched reservoir. They are indispensable when noninvasive large scale searches of metal objects with magnetic signatures are conducted e.g. the objects made of iron or steel. In the area of Lednica lake several objects with a magnetic signature were localized. In the course of research in Lednica, three types of noninvasive prospections were applied: hydroacoustics (a multibeam probe), seismology (subbottom sediment profiler) and magnetics (Caesium magnetometer). Each of these methods helps to localize other objects and gives very interesting results; however, only after all three have been used is it possible to obtain a precise picture of the bottom of the lake together with anomalies, which to a large extent can have anthropogenic origins. It seems that the future of underwater archaeology is closely related to the described noninvasive surveys. Unfortunately it will be more difficult to achieve in shallow inland reservoirs than in sea waters, where these technologies have already been introduced for some time now

NUMERICAL MODEL OF DISPOSAL SYSTEM FOR CHEMICAL WARFARE AGENTS

World War II has brought a lot of destruction to the world. Unfortunately, we can observe its effects until today. One of the effects is the tons of chemical warfare agents (CWAs) left at the Baltic Sea bottom. The paper undertakes the problem of numerical research on the innovative disposal system for chemical warfare agents. The system is being built within the Polish development project devoted to localization, transferring from the bottom to the water surface, and disposal of submerged CWA. At the beginning of the paper, the introduction with the project description is included. Then, the analysis of functional and constructional assumptions for the CWA disposal system is presented. Next, the mathematical model with the results of numerical research is inserted. In the end, conclusions from the study with the future research schedule are formulated