Field Work

September 2017 L. Schmidt In some places, thin soils mean that many plants must take root in in the fractures of shallow bedrock. Compared to soils—which are comparatively easy to access and measure—the moisture dynamics of near-surface bedrock are poorly understood. This means that we don’t understand how plants rooted in bedrock are supported by bedrock. For instance, how do plants…

After much planning and coordination, Eel River CZO researchers gathered at the Rivendell experimental hillslope in Northern California to install a Vadose Zone Monitoring System (VMS).   The VMS is a custom flexible sleeve developed by Ofer Dahan and Sensoil Ltd. that houses samplers and sensors specially designed for complex unsaturated environments.  The VMS sleeve was installed into an…

Using a total of 7 different drilling methods, ERCZO researchers successfully drilled 8 wells along a ridge within the characteristic hummocky earthflow topography of the Franciscan complex central belt melange. The rock we encountered varied in strength from core that could stand upright to mud that could be cut with a knife. These holes will provide valuable…