Место издания: Пермь , Год издания: 2020

The study was focused on determining of shape and thickness of unconsolidated deposits layer inside karst caves using electrical resistivity tomography (ERT). Such data has high importance for searching of promising areas for archaeological excavations. The study was conducted in three caves - Selungur (Kyrgyzstan), Chagyrskaya and Strashnaya (Altay, Russia). ERT method was applied in pole-dipole array variant. Distance between the electrodes was 0.2 or 1 m depending on required depth. General structures of sediment layers were determined and important features were detected in considered caves. Inside Chagyrskaya cave sediments an anomaly related to limestone block was detected with ERT and verified with a pit. Sediments in lateral gallery have insignificant depth which does not exceed 0.3 m. In Strashnaya cave where 10 m of sediments were already excavated before, a rest of their depth was estimated as 3 m according to ERT data. Model of sedimentary layer in Selungur cave based on ERT data was successfully verified with drilling: geophysics allowed not only detect sedimentary layer depth but also discriminate detrital rock from bedrock and localize separate large rock fragments.