Geological Society of America

58 D9. Recent Advances in Hydrogeology (Posters)

Sunday, 10 October 2021
2:30 PM - 6:30 PM
Exhibit Hall A

MACROPORE VELOCITY MAPPING OF ALLUVIAL SOIL USING TEMPORAL ELECTRICAL RESISTIVITY IMAGING

Paper number: 58-2
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 2:30 PM – 6:30 PM

Authors

Todd Halihan Presenting Author
Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK
Bharat Sharma Acharya
State of Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, OK
John P. Hager
Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK
Lucie Guertault
North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC
Garey Fox
North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC

Abstract

Riparian soils are uniquely susceptible to the formation of macropores, voids with preferential flow in comparison to surrounding strata, which are hypothesized to promote fast transport of water through soil layers. Temporal Electrical Resistivity Imaging (TERI) can locate spatial heterogeneities in soil wetting patterns caused by preferential flow through macropores, thus optimizing the design of riparian buffers. In a field evaluation of naturally occurring macropores, the TERI technique would detect the wetted zone around a macropore similar to an area of increased hydraulic conductivity in a heterogeneous soil matrix. An experiment was established in coarse soil to evaluate if TERI datasets could quantify matrix and macropore hydraulic properties. Results show TERI as a viable method for calculating the fluid velocity along a series of vertical profiles in the coarse-grained North Carolina field site. The datasets allowed the distribution and hydraulic properties of the macropores to be quantified when compared with traditional soil datasets.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 53, No. 6

doi: 10.1130/abs/2021AM-364796

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