Estimating the Fine Soil Fraction of Desert Pavements Using Ground Penetrating Radar
Abstract
A reconnaissance tool that can estimate the clay content and saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks) of well‐developed desert pavements has immediate applications for researchers and practitioners who work in arid environments. We examined the use of surface‐based ground penetrating radar (GPR) to rapidly approximate these properties on six, 100‐m‐long transects for two different aged (∼100 000 vs. 4000 yr) desert pavement surfaces. We determined early‐time amplitudes from GPR transects, ground electrical conductivity, hydraulic properties, clay content, water content, and soil salinity at regular intervals along each transect. Both surfaces were low in water content and salinity; however, the older pavement contained substantial amounts of silt and clay in the surficial soil horizon. Using multivariate linear regression, which included GPR amplitude and a nominal measure of soil structure ascertained by visual field inspection, we show significant correlations between measured and predicted values of both silt plus clay content (r = 0.84, P Ks (r = 0.73, P Ks, of surficial soils on certain well‐developed desert pavements.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- May 01, 2006
- Source ID
- 10.2136/vzj2005.0095
Entities
People
- Darren G. Meadows
- Eric V. Mcdonald
- Michael H. Young
Organizations
- Army Research Office
- Nevada System of Higher Education