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Balloon and Core Sampling for Determining Bulk Density of Alluvial Desert Soil

U.S. Geological Survey, 705 N. Plaza St., Carson City, NV 89701

*Corresponding author.

ABSTRACT

Samples were collected from major strata in the upper 5 m of an alluvial soil profile in the Amargosa Desert of southern Nevada to compare rubber-balloon and drive-core bulk-density measurement methods. For strate where the fine soil was <82% sand and <15% clay, differences between total and fine-soil bulk-density values determined by the two methods were typically <10 and 15%, respectively, even where rock-fragment content was as great as 48% by volume. Outside this range of fine-soil texture, where soil consistency was either very loose or very hard, the core method appeared to sample inaccurately, resulting in bulk-density values >0.30 Mg m^–3 less than those determined by the balloon method. Under the severe sampling conditions encountered, large decreases in the relative accuracy of the core method were not directly related to rock-fragment content, but were related to extremes in the cohesiveness of the strata sampled.

Research supported by the U.S. Geological Survey, Branch of Nuclear Waste Hydrology.

Received for publication July 20, 1990.

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