Abstract
This paper reports the use of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) to study static and dynamic soil water phenomena. Two-dimensional and three-dimensional images were obtained to visualise water content, void geometry, and water wetting, drainage and redistribution in three soil materials: packed crumbs of Hanslope clay soil, medium quartz sand and coarse quartz sand. The observed wetting and drying phenomena differed among these soil materials. The wetting front in a column of the medium sand was the typical piston type, but not in the packed clay soil column. Wetting front instability was observed in the coarse sand column. Images of water draining vertically through the medium sand column showed a uniform drainage profile. Drainage from the coarse sand column initially showed a drying front, and approached a uniform profile after free drainage. In contrast, drainage from the clay soil column showed a drying front and a non-uniform drainage profile. The preliminary results from this study show that MRI appears to be a useful tool for visible, nondestructive investigations of soil structure and transport processes, with potential attendant benefits for quantification and modelling of preferential flow in such soils.
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Amin, M. H. G., Hall, L. D., Chorley, R. J., Carpenter, T. A., Richards, K. S. & Bache, B. W. 1993a. ‘Spatial and temporal mapping of water in soil by magnetic resonance imaging’Hydrological Processes 7, (In press).
Amin, M. H. G., Hall, L. D., Chorley, R. J., Carpenter, T. A., Richards, K. S. & Bache, B. W. 1993b. ‘Magnetic resonance imaging of soil-water phenomena’Magnetic Resonance Imaging (In press).
Anderson, S. H. & Gantzer, C. J. 1989. ‘Determination of soil water content by X-ray computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging’Irrigation Science 10, 63–71.
Bottomley, P.A., Rogers, H.H. & Foster, T.H. 1986. ‘NMR imaging shows water distribution and transport in plant root systems in situ’Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences United States of America 83, 87–89.
Bouma,. 1991. ‘Soil morphology and preferential flow along macropores’Agricultural Water Management 3, 235–250.
Brown, D. P., Pratum, T. K., Bledsoe, C., Ford, E. D., Cothen, J. S. & Perry, D., 1991. ‘Noninvasive studies of conifer roots: nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging of Douglas-fir seedlings’Canadian Journal of Forest Research 21, 1559–1566.
Callaghan, P. T. 1991.Principles of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Microscopy Oxford University Press, New York.
Carpenter, T.A., Hall, L.D. & Jezzard, P.J. 1989. ‘Proton magnetic resonance imaging of solid polymers using instrumentation designed for the liquid state’Journal of Magnetic Resonance 84, 383–387.
Diment, G. A. & Watson, K. K. 1985. ‘Stability analysis of water movement in unsaturated porous materials: 3. Experimental studies’Water Resources Research 21, 979–984.
Gummerson, R.J., Hall, C. & Hoff, W.D. 1979. ‘Unsaturated water flow within porous materials observed by NMR imaging’Nature 281, 56–57.
Hall, L.D., Marcus, T., Neale, C., Powell, B., Sallos, J. & Talgala, S.L. 1985. ‘Design of volume resonator probes for NMR imaging’Journal of Magnetic Resonance 62, 525–528.
Hillel, D. 1987. ‘Unstable flow in layered soils: a review’Hydrological Processes 1 143–147.
Kean, D. & Smith, M. 1986.Magnetic Resonance Imaging - Principle and Applications William Heinemann Medical Books, London.
Omasa, K., Onoe, M. & Yamada, H. 1985. ‘NMR imaging for measuring root system and soil water content’Environmental Control in Biology 23, 99–102.
Roberts, T.P., Carpenter, T.A. & Hall, L.D. 1990. ‘Design and application of prefocused pulses by simulated annealing’,.Journalof Magnetic Resonance 89, 595–604.
RogerS, H.H. & Bottomley, P.A. 1987. ‘In situ nuclear magnetic resonance imaging of roots: influence of soil type, ferromagnetic particle content, and soil water’Agronomy Journal 79,957–965.
Tollner, E. W., Verma, B. P., Malko, J. A., Shuman, L. M. & Cheshire, J. M. Jr., 1991. ‘Effect of soil total iron on magnetic resonance image quality’Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis 22, 1941–1948.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1996 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this paper
Cite this paper
Amin, M.H.G., Hall, L.D., Chorley, R.J., Richards, K.S., Carpenter, T.A., Bache, B.W. (1996). Visualisation of Static and Dynamic Water Phenomena in Soil Using Magnetic Resonance Imaging. In: Singh, V.P., Kumar, B. (eds) Subsurface-Water Hydrology. Water Science and Technology Library, vol 16. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-0391-6_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-0391-6_1
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-010-4175-1
Online ISBN: 978-94-011-0391-6
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive