Soil mapping

I've been helping out with soil morphology labs this semester. We spent the last couple of weeks on a soil mapping exercise.

First you start with a map of the area of interest, and locate boring holes.


Once you reach the boring location, you use an auger to bore down to the depth of interest.

Each auger-full of soil is laid out neatly with stick to mark the depth of the auger bucket. Here, the top of the soil is marked with the leaf, and bottom depth is in the upper left.

Some of the soil horizons are clearly visible in this photo.

Each horizon is textured (for the amounts of sand, silt and clay), colored, and noted for other characteristics of interest.

This information will be placed into a GIS application, and a soil map will be made. Maps are then used to determine hydrology, yield potential for various crops, engineering properties, and many other applications.