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The Occurrence of Flow Channels in Soils¹

ABSTRACT

Specialized flow features (channels) described in Typic Hapludalf, clayey, mixed, mesic soils that have been used for waste-water irrigation are reported, to explain the mechanism for widely different water-flow velocities through soil.

A field investigation of 15 soil-pit transects revealed vertical zones of loose, porous, fine-structured soil through which rapid saturated flow occurred. The texture of the soil in the channels was clay, as was the matrix between channels.

Rapid flow of effluent-irrigation waters through channels in the soil may lessen the renovating capability of the soil because of the reduced surface area and reduced contact time. Because the channels were coincident in some cases with carbonate bedrock solution channels, possible ground-water pollution may have occurred.

Key Words: hydraulic-conductivity • waste-water • renovation • saturated flow

¹ Authorized for publication on 11 June 1980 as paper no. 6001 of the J. Ser. of the Pennsylvania Agric. Exp. Stn., University Park, PA 16802. Received 16 June 1980. Funding was provided in part by the U.S. Off. Water Res. and Tech. administered by the Inst. for Res. on Land and Water Resources, The Pennsylvania State University.

² Assistant Professor of Soils, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061; and Professor of Soil Genesis and Morphology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park; respectively.

Received for publication June 16, 1980.