Sensing Hard Pan Depth With Ground-Penetrating Radar

An experiment was performed in soil bins to determine if ground-penetrating radar (GPR) could be used to detect hard pans. Hard pans were formed in two soils at two depths and with two different bulk densities. A penetrometer was also used to determine hard pan depth and for comparison with GPR. Correlations between hard pan depths predicted by each method were very linear and with correlation coefficients near 1.00. Future research could determine if this device can be used effectively in a wide range of soil types to detect hard pan depth and to determine soil density.