Soil Investigations using Electromagnetic Induction and Ground‐Penetrating Radar in Southwest Tennessee

Abstract

Conducting precise soil investigations rapidly and nonintrusively is of great interest to soil scientists and engineers. As such, comparisons of ground‐penetrating radar (GPR), electromagnetic induction (EMI), and traditional soil survey techniques were made on loessial soils in southwest Tennessee. The objectives of this study were to: (i) conduct a complete soil morphological, chemical, and physical characterization by methods; (ii) conduct a nonintrusive soil investigation by GPR and EMI; and (iii) compare the results from a traditional investigation with the nonintrusive investigation. The soils were located on an upland position. Parent material was loess–alluvium–Tertiary sand. Measured loess thickness ranged from 90 to 144 cm and measured alluvium thickness ranged from 82 to 151 cm. Soil morphological and physical properties in the upper 130 cm of nine pedons were analyzed statistically and grouped by pedon sample site. For an unbiased assessment, all GPR and EMI data were analyzed independently by pedon sample site, and data were grouped on the basis of similarities. Groupings of sites were compared by Kappa statistics. At the subgroup level, all sites were classified as Ultic Hapludalfs. Groupings of sites based on soil morphology and physical data had strong agreement with groupings of sites based upon GPR data, which were first targeted by a precursory EMI survey.