MSc thesis Lina Dreher (2016)

Abstract: The State Office of Baden-Württemberg and the District Office Bodenseekreis initiated a documentation of an interesting structure in the Tettnanger Wald area to preserve the feature. Different methods of performing a geological documentation are possible, and some of them were carried out in the study area 'Tettnanger Wald' that is located in southern Germany, north of Lake Constance. Particular regard was given to structures that appear within a delta sequence that can be found in a gravel pit in the Tettnanger Wald. The structures developed due to the melting of dead ice in the underground, resulting in sag structures as well as a hollow form that was filled up by topset material and involves flexures of surrounding foresets. An advanced form of documentation, namely, terrestrial laser scans, a kind of active remote sensing technique, were performed by the firm Zoller + Fröhlich in the years 2014 and 2015 in order to receive 3D-data of the previously mentioned features. Comparing this method to other procedures of documentation that were carried out in the study area, such as Lidar-data and traditional geological fieldwork, including a grain size analysis and determination of petrology, it is expected for this recent method to hold further information than documentation used so far.
This work demonstrates the kind of information that could be derived by the different methods of documentation used and shows how things have changed over time with regard to new knowledge, by taking the geology of the study area into consideration. In addition, it should become clear that the 3D-data is a valuable tool for further treatment, to gather even more information than already included in the data.
The traditional geological methods, however, are not negligible but necessary to interpret data derived from a terrestrial laser scan as well as from the Lidar measurements. Yet, both remote sensing techniques turn out to be useful enhancements for geological documentation, applicable in many fields of expertise. With a combination of all methods used, the geological environment and features of the study area could be documented very well.