Soil Moisture

A test was conducted to to figure out how much water was in our soil sample, or the percent of our soil that was actually nothing but water. A small sampling of soil (~1.5 cups) was placed in a tray made out of aluminum foil:

This sample was measured to weigh 27.8 grams when the aluminum was zeroed out and subtracted:

The sample was then heated in a drying oven for ~24 hours to remove excess water content, and when weighed again was found to now only weigh 10.5 grams:

To find the percent of moisture, or the percentage that was water, you subtract the mass of the soil before being heated (27.8 grams) by the mass of the soil after heating (10.5 grams), divide it by the original mass of soil (27.8 grams again), and multiply that by 100, or (27.8 - 10.5) / (27.8) x 100. This yeilds a percent of water of ~62.2% water, meaning that well over half the soil consisted of water. There does appear to be a correlation between soil moisture and texture based on the test results- silt was found to generally be very wet and not ribbon very well, as high moisture would explain and silt does.

- Andrew