Correlation between Inverted Chargeabilities and Organic Compounds Concentrations in Soils – A Field Experiment

Resistivity and induced polarization tomographies were performed along profiles on an industrial waste land to detect and delineate hydrocarbon-impacted areas. To confront geophysical results and to conduct cross-hole measurements, 4 boreholes were drilled. Soil samples were taken and analysed. Concentrations of organic compounds in soils were then compared to inversed chargeabilities obtained from surface measurements. This comparison shows that chargeabilities are linked to contaminant concentrations in soil samples except from areas where clays were found. A filtering technique based on normalized chargeability values was implemented and validated in order to discriminate chargeabilities linked to the presence of clayey sediments and contaminant concentrations in soil samples.