Wednesday, November 15, 2006
228-10

Soil Properties of Mounded Landscapes on Fairchild Air Force Base, Eastern Washington.

B.D. Lee1, Jonathan A. Wald2, James A. Doolittle3, and Christopher S. Miller3. (1) Purdue Univ, 915 W State St., West Lafayette, IN 47907, (2) US Air Force, 36 CES/CEV, Anderson AFB, Guam, (3) USDA-NRCS, c/o US Forest Service, 11 Campus Blvd. Suite 200, Newtown Square, PA 19073

Small, 3 – 10 m wide and approximately 1 meter high, natural mounds cover much of the channel scabland areas of eastern Washington.  The objective of this study was to characterize the physical, geophysical and chemical properties of these mounds.  Soil profiles were sampled and described to bedrock at the toeslope, backslope and summit of a mound.  Electromagnetic induction surveys were conducted during May (wet soil moisture conditions) and October of 2005 (dry soil moisture conditions) over a 60 m by 60 m grid, which included five mounds, to characterize the electrical conductivity changes across the landscape.  Ground penetrating radar was used to characterize the internal stratigraphy and depth to bedrock beneath three mounds within the grid.  Geophysical properties and soil chemical and physical properties will be discussed.