Student Zone: Students utilize geophysics to investigate flooding on campus

Students from the School of Veterinary Medicine at Louisiana State University (LSU) utilize geophysics to investigate flooding on campus. Daniel Locci, one such student from LSU became curious about what processes could be creating such problems under the veterinary building. He wondered why the relief wells did not improve the underground pressure equally in the area. Borings with engineering logs show that the soils are very heterogeneous, with little correlation between the logs. He organized a project to further investigate the flooding problems in the area by using geophysical methods. To provide context and generate a reference geologic cross section across the Mississippi floodplain sediments, he acquired an electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) profile on the side of the veterinary building. The preliminary study suggested a southwest-dipping wedge-shaped layer of more resistive material over less resistive material and a general thinning toward the northeast on the uppermost less resistive layer. The findings of study aligned with the 1944 maps from Harold Norman Fisk and modern LiDAR maps showing prehistoric bank-line positions of meanders of the Mississippi River, with southwest lateral accretion of sediments in the Duncan point bar south of LSU.