Borehole Observations
Borehole Observations
Embedded Files
This is a live document
October 22, 2026.
The soil moisture probes are stable, with the probe at 0cm showing slight variation, but generally drying even though we have had storm conditions for two days. Any rainfall that contacts the stone vaporizes rather than reaching the soil. The surface temperatures of the stone are not being measured, which I will address.
Since I have installed the probes two days ago, the soil has continued to dry despite higher than normal, muggy, atmospheric humidity and brief showers which failed to soak the soil.
The soil temperature probes at 50-60cm and 25cm are converging, with the 25cm probe cooling. The temperature probe at 0cm is behaving as expected, being at the soil matrix that is covered with ~20 cm of surface rock cover items. The probe at 10 cm is in contact with the material that itself is in contact with the surface cover material. That probe fluctuates with a time offset which demonstrates heat is transferring through the material over time heating, and when atmospheric conditions cool, slowly radiates that heat back and cools. It's just very neat to watch. Meanwhile, with all the thunder and quick showers, none of that is making it to the soil, and the atmosphere continues to greedily evaporate whatever moisture was there.
October 24, 2026.
The top rock, the one on the very surface got to 95 F today. I had just installed the probe yesterday late afternoon, and already it's useful. Clouds came over and we've had some rain. The rock is now 83 F and dropping. The air temperature is 67 F, with 60% RH. The dew point is 53 F. The soil interface reads 74 F and 18% RH. The soil continues to dry even with spats of rain. I had not realized before I installed these probes how decoupled atmospheric conditions are with the soil interface consisting of rocky substrate. I don't think anyone else does, either. The benefit to creatures that occupy talus is increased moisture retention. The surface rock is a reflective blanket. Getting the moisture into the talus and identifying the environmental conditions that allow it to stay there is the salient issue.
After watching the probes for even a few days, it seems clear to me that unless we get a significant soaking rain, like we had with the hurricane remnants, and sustained dew point temperature at the soil interface, soil moisture will continue to decline, and should there be any snails at depth, they will stay down. The storms are a tease and may forestall drought, but not reverse it until temeprature declines and sustained dew point is reached. The soil conditions at depth have been stable for days at 80 F and 32% RH. It's remarkable that even with several inches of rain, the soil dried out so quickly because the soil remained hot.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse