Palouse Prairie Restoration Soils Classification
Faculty Mentor
Richard Orndorff
Presentation Type
Poster
Start Date
5-8-2024 11:15 AM
End Date
5-8-2024 1:00 PM
Location
PUB NCR
Primary Discipline of Presentation
Geosciences
Abstract
The Palouse Prairie restoration site is a section of the Palouse Prairie that has experienced intensive agricultural use over more than a century. The goal of the restoration is to return this section of agricultural land to its original state, and provide access to encourage recreation, explorations, and educational opportunities. To aid in this endeavor, we took a soil sample from the site (named PP-5) using an auger and tested the engineering properties of the sample. Eastern Washington University has plans to build trails and educational sites throughout this area, therefore documenting the engineering properties of Palouse Prairie Soils will be necessary for future development. Using ASTM standards (such as the sieve and standard proctor tests), we determined our soil’s specific gravity, particle size distribution plastic limit (PL), liquid limit (LL), plasticity index (PI), optimal water content, maximum dry bulk unit weight, and unconfined compressive strength. These tests allowed us to classify our soil using the unified soil classification system (USCS). Soil sample PP-5 was found to be a SC type soil, this means it is a soil dominated by sand-sized grains with a significant amount of clay giving it some cohesive properties.
Recommended Citation
Castillo da Silva, Zackery; Carpenter, Samuel; and Desimone, Carson, "Palouse Prairie Restoration Soils Classification" (2024). 2024 Symposium. 39.
https://dc.ewu.edu/srcw_2024/ps_2024/p2_2024/39
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Palouse Prairie Restoration Soils Classification
PUB NCR
The Palouse Prairie restoration site is a section of the Palouse Prairie that has experienced intensive agricultural use over more than a century. The goal of the restoration is to return this section of agricultural land to its original state, and provide access to encourage recreation, explorations, and educational opportunities. To aid in this endeavor, we took a soil sample from the site (named PP-5) using an auger and tested the engineering properties of the sample. Eastern Washington University has plans to build trails and educational sites throughout this area, therefore documenting the engineering properties of Palouse Prairie Soils will be necessary for future development. Using ASTM standards (such as the sieve and standard proctor tests), we determined our soil’s specific gravity, particle size distribution plastic limit (PL), liquid limit (LL), plasticity index (PI), optimal water content, maximum dry bulk unit weight, and unconfined compressive strength. These tests allowed us to classify our soil using the unified soil classification system (USCS). Soil sample PP-5 was found to be a SC type soil, this means it is a soil dominated by sand-sized grains with a significant amount of clay giving it some cohesive properties.
