ABSTRACT
Chapter 4 discusses investigation programmes to collect information on site geology. Geological investigation methods include the study of aerial photographs, digital terrain models (DTMs) using LiDAR scans or terrestrial photogrammetry, and geophysics such as seismic refraction. Also discussed are methods of surface geological mapping with particular emphasis on characterising the properties of discontinuities, for example, orientation, spacing, persistence, roughness, and infilling, using quantitative descriptions defined by the International Society for Rock Mechanics; details of this procedure are provided in Appendix II. Probabilistic methods of analysing discontinuity data are presented. Also discussed is diamond drilling to obtain high-quality core, core logging methods and techniques to orient drill core.
