Ground Penetrating Radar

Any burial ground in the 48 contiguous United States, from a half-acre historic churchyard to a 500-acre municipal park cemetery, can be mapped with Sentry Mapping's ground penetrating radar. Our team tailors antenna frequency and GPS grid density to regional soils, climate, and terrain, delivering precise results without disturbing a single grave.

Ground-penetrating radar scans accurately through most cemetery surfaces—lush turf, bare soil, gravel drives, asphalt lanes, concrete walkways, and even brick or paver plazas—without disturbing the grounds. Whether your plots sit under manicured lawn or beneath a paved road, Sentry Mapping's GPR equipment can still detect every marked or unmarked burial.

Before you sign a contract, ask any ground-penetrating-radar mapping company about their cemetery experience, GPR frequency and GPS accuracy, data deliverables, software compatibility, crew credentials, project timeline, on-site disruption, cost structure, and liability insurance. Clear answers reveal whether they can truly protect your graves and records.

Ground penetrating radar lets you see every burial without digging, saving time, money, and heritage. It is quick, non-destructive, and pairs with GPS to build precise digital cemetery maps. Downsides: clay or water-logged soils weaken the signal and careless reading can mislead, so its vital to hire trained experts like the technicians at Sentry Mapping.

Yes. Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) is considered safe for operators, cemetery staff, and visitors. The equipment uses very low-power radio waves—about one-thousandth the strength of a cell phone—so it does not disturb human remains, monuments, or nearby electronics. Surveys are noninvasive, silent, and require no digging.

Ground-penetrating radar is highly accurate. Under typical cemetery conditions, Sentry Mapping’s GPR pinpoints a burial center within about ±6 inches and estimates depth within ±10 percent. Results depend on soil, moisture and grave materials, but high-frequency antennas and precision GPS let us document virtually every grave without disturbing the ground.

Yes. High-frequency ground-penetrating radar can still pick up century-old graves in most soils because disturbed soil layers, vault remnants, or voids remain detectable. While resolution fades as coffins decay, Sentry Mapping’s specialized GPR and GIS workflow regularly finds 19th-century burials and older, as long as site conditions (soil, depth, moisture) are reasonable.

Ground-Penetrating Radar can reliably reveal the presence and general boundaries of a buried void, but its reflections blur at depth. GPR therefore estimates a cavity’s width and depth within a tolerance—often a few inches—rather than providing an architect-grade “exact” measurement for most cemetery-mapping projects today.

Yes. High-frequency ground penetrating radar (GPR) can pinpoint unmarked graves without digging by detecting disturbed soil, coffins, or voids below the surface. Sentry Mapping’s cemetery GPR surveys deliver precise GPS coordinates, letting you update burial plot maps and avoid accidentally disturbing unknown interments.

Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) is a non-invasive scanning tool that fires high-frequency radio waves into the soil and listens for echoes. By timing and plotting those reflections, GPR creates a subsurface image that pinpoints underground objects, layers, or voids—such as marked or unmarked graves—without any digging or damage.