Describe a method/process

While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes: • Amina Okafor is an archaeologist. • In 2018, Amina Okafor developed TerraTrace, a ground-imaging system that detects buried walls without excavation. • TerraTrace and magnetometry share one feature: both survey buried structures without excavating them. • Unlike magnetometry, TerraTrace distinguishes stone walls from compacted-earth floors. • In 2019, researchers tested both methods on 22 survey plots. • TerraTrace correctly mapped reference features in 19 of them; magnetometry correctly mapped reference features in 14. • TerraTrace mapped a buried stone doorway at Hill Fort. • TerraTrace also mapped an earthen floor at River Camp. • The original equipment could not be used at steep desert sites because its cart-mounted frame could not cross the terrain. • Motivated by that problem, Amina Okafor created a backpack-mounted TerraTrace unit in 2023. • The method has three steps: first, mark a survey grid; next, collect overlapping ground scans; finally, combine the scans into a subsurface map. • Specialists already familiar with Amina Okafor and TerraTrace may not know that the adaptation made surveys possible at steep desert sites.