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CLICK PHOTOS FOR AN ENLARGED VERSION
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Collection of soil-water vapor samples for tritium determination. The collection is part is
part of a long-term monitoring program on the transport of tritium in the unsaturated zone
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On-site facility for collection of soil-water vapor and unsaturated-zone gas from a deep
borehole for tritium and volatile-organic compound analyses. USGS scientists are conducting research on the
transport and fate of tritium and other contaminants in desert environments with thick unsaturated zones
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Collection of soil-gas samples for volatile-organic compound analysis. USGS scientists are
studying the transport and fate of volatile-organic compounds in the unsaturated zone
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Soil sampling for naturally occurring perchlorate in Amargosa Desert soils
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Inspecting a pit wall for evidence of a geologic fault. Faults can form pathways or barriers to
the transport of contaminants in the unsaturated zone
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Belowground and aboveground features and processes being evaluated at the Amargosa Desert
Research Site—soil properties, root distribution, transpiration, and evaporation. USGS scientists are
quantifying the movement of soil moisture and tritium from the shallow unsaturated zone to the atmosphere
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Eddy covariance station used to measure continuous evapotranspiration from desert soil and
plants. The station non-invasively collects atmospheric data that are analyzed to calculate continuous
water-vapor flux values
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Hemispherical chamber used to periodically measure evaporation from bare soil. This is one
component of research being conducted on how moisture and tritium are transported from the unsaturated zone to
the atmosphere
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Collecting soil-pit samples for a collaborative study with the U.S. Army near Yuma, Arizona,
February 2007. Samples were used to determine physical properties and moisture conditions of the soil
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Installing access shaft for subsurface measurements in the unsaturated zone
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Vertical shaft (5 feet in diameter and 45 feet deep) being installed to provide access to unsaturated zone sediments
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The top of the access shaft after installation. Instrumentation to measure the movement of moisture in the unsaturated zone radiate away from the shaft
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Installation of a borehole designed to measure the transport of water vapor in a deep unsaturated zone
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Collecting gas samples for isotopic analysis of Carbon-14 dioxide from a deep borehole
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Construction of a test waste-burial trench
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Completed test trench facility
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Processing unsaturated-zone core samples for later analysis
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Apparatus for measuring saturated hydraulic conductivity of soil
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USGS scientist sampling plants for tritium analysis. The plants act as
"detectors" for the presence of tritium in the soil's water vapor
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On-site weather station
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Distant view of the research site
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Distant view of the research site and the waste facility looking north
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USGS scientist installing a thermocouple psychrometer during a study to assess
the hydrologic performance of an evapotranspiration landfill
cover at the U.S. Army Fort Carson military base, Colorado Springs, Colorado Photograph by P.E. McGuire,
Earth Tech, September 2000
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Equipment used by USGS scientists to sample tritium in unsaturated-zone
vapors
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