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The use of gypsum spheres for identifying water flow routes in soils
Author(s) -
Crabtree R. W.,
Trudgill S. T.
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
earth surface processes and landforms
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.294
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1096-9837
pISSN - 0197-9337
DOI - 10.1002/esp.3290090104
Subject(s) - gypsum , soil water , flow (mathematics) , spheres , environmental science , soil science , water flow , moisture , water content , geotechnical engineering , geology , materials science , hydrology (agriculture) , composite material , mathematics , engineering , geometry , aerospace engineering
Gypsum (plaster of paris) has been cast into spheres and placed in soils; weight loss has been used to identify relative water flow routes. Theoretical considerations and laboratory experimentation show that solutional weight loss of the material used increases with increasing water flow, but is independent of pH above pH 4. Results for gypsum sphere weight loss are presented for soils where moisture conditions have been measured independently using tensiometers. The data suggest that the weight loss method provides a viable time‐integrated demonstration of relative water flow routes.