Subsurface radar applications in the Delaware Basin. Final report, June 1, 1980-January 31, 1981

Purpose was to find a method of probing into potash to determine if dangers lie ahead. Of specific interest to Sandia, was the problem of outlining a breccia pipe which Mississippi Chemical Company (MCC) found protruded into the potash bed in Carlsbad, New Mexico, they were mining. MCC mined around it and continued their work. If, however, the discontinuity in the ore (breccia pipe) had any fractures linking with a high pressure water zone above the mining level, the act of mining into the pipe could have lost the mine to incoming water. Imperial Chemical Industries, Ltd. had this happen to them in their only salt mine in England. Chapter II discusses our attempts (unsuccessful) to probe through the potash ore and see the breccia pipe. Chapter III contains data on laboratory measurements of the complex electric permittivity (dielectric constant and loss tangent) of potash samples from MCC