Deploying combined Gamma and EMI sensor technology to accurately target hidden clay layers at one-meter depths across sandy soil profiles.
The Challenge of Deep Delving in Sandy Soils
For growers managing deep sandy soils across Western Australia, delving is a highly effective strategy to bring subsoil clay to the surface, overcoming water repellency and vastly improving nutrient retention. However, locating the exact depth and distribution of these hidden clay layers has traditionally been a frustrating, hit-or-miss process. Without clear spatial intelligence, heavy machinery is often deployed blindly, or managers are forced to rely on slow, expensive grid coring to find viable clay reserves before bringing the delving plows into the paddock.
An Experimental Dual-Sensor Approach
To solve this operational bottleneck, the Aerovines field team recently completed a highly promising experimental project aimed at drastically speeding up the clay-targeting process. By deploying our combined passive gamma and electromagnetic induction (EMI) sensor platforms, we set out to map the underlying subsoil architecture and locate distinct clay lenses hidden deep below the sandy surface. While the passive gamma sensors mapped the stable surface materials, the EMI system read the deeper electrical conductivity, actively hunting for the distinct structural signatures of those deep clay bands.
Rigorous Ground-Truthing and Validation
Because this was a foundational experiment designed to prove the technology's capability in this specific deep-soil application, we prioritized absolute data integrity. Our field team manually extracted over 400 deep soil cores, pulling physical samples down to a depth of 1.1 meters to strictly validate the sensor readings. This intensive, manual ground-truthing confirmed that the dual-sensor spatial maps accurately predicted where the clay was hiding, successfully transforming invisible subsoil variability into a clear, actionable target map for delving machinery.
The Future of Precision Soil Amelioration
The success of this project represents a massive leap forward for precision soil amelioration. While extracting over 400 deep physical cores was necessary to calibrate our predictive models for this initial trial, the accuracy of the combined Gamma and EMI data is undeniable. Moving into future seasons, we expect to significantly reduce the volume of physical cores required for this process. By leveraging our high-speed sensor scanning, we can deliver rapid, hyper-accurate clay depth maps to growers massively reducing upfront sampling costs and optimising heavy machinery time during seasonal delving operations.