Trenched cable electrode

• Price: Price on application

For very shallow ERT we use direct burial cables in trenches, or insert them into the ground surface. Takeouts along these cables are moulded with ½” pipe lengths over which we spring clips formed in the top of 316 stainless steel electrodes that are 125mm long and 20mm wide as shown.

An adapted chainsaw style or larger trencher can create a shallow trench for permanent ERT monitoring using these electrodes while burial of the cable takeouts alone may result in contact resistance problems. The electrodes may be pressed in vertically to the soil surface, or into the bottom of trenches or the sides of trenches. If deeply trenched, then they can even be used to look upwards into soil from below ploughing depth and out of the near surface drying and wetting layer that can crack too making electrode contact havoc. This is very effective and economical as a means of monitoring changes in soil moisture profiles over time in a set-and-forget scenario using telemetered monitoring.