Anisotropy and depth‐related heterogeneity of hydraulic conductivity in a bog peat. I: laboratory measurements

Abstract Anisotropy and heterogeneity of hydraulic conductivity ( K ) are suspected of greatly affecting rates and patterns of ground‐water seepage in peats. A new laboratory method, termed here the modified cube method, was used to measure horizontal and vertical hydraulic conductivity ( K h and K v ) of 400 samples of bog peat. The new method avoids many of the problems associated with existing field and laboratory methods, and is shown to give relatively precise measurements of K . In the majority of samples tested, K h was much greater than K v , indicating that the bog peat was strongly anisotropic. Log 10 K h , log 10 K v , and log 10 ( K h / K v ) were found to vary significantly with depth, although none of the relationships was simple. We comment on the scale dependency of our measurements. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.