Solid Earth, 7, 1491–1508, 2016 www.solid-earth.net/7/1491/2016/ doi:10.5194/se-7-1491-2016 © Author(s) 2016. CC Attribution 3.0 License. High-resolution shear-wave seismic reflection as a tool to image near-surface subrosion structures – a case study in Bad Frankenhausen, Germany Sonja H. Wadas1, Ulrich Polom1, and Charlotte M. Krawczyk1,2,a 1Leibniz Institute for Applied Geophysics, Stilleweg 2, 30655 Hanover, Germany 2Institute for Applied Geosciences, TU Berlin, Ernst-Reuter-Platz 1, 10587 Berlin, Germany anow at: GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Telegrafenberg, 14473 Potsdam, Germany Correspondence to: Sonja H. Wadas (
[email protected]) Received: 16 June 2016 – Published in Solid Earth Discuss.: 1 July 2016 Revised: 29 September 2016 – Accepted: 5 October 2016 – Published: 28 October 2016 Abstract. Subrosion is the subsurface leaching of soluble to leach the Permian formations below the church and causes rocks that results in the formation of depression and col- the tilting of the church tower. This case study shows the po- lapse structures. This global phenomenon is a geohazard in tential of horizontal shear-wave seismic reflection to image urban areas. To study near-surface subrosion structures, four near-surface subrosion structures in an urban environment shear-wave seismic reflection profiles, with a total length with a horizontal resolution of less than 1 m in the uppermost of ca. 332 m, were carried out around the famous leaning 10–15 m. church tower of Bad Frankenhausen in northern Thuringia, Germany, which shows an inclination of 4.93◦ from the verti- cal.