Underground Leak Detection in Wet and Dry Soil Conditions

Methane pancakes – that’s what plumes from underground leaks resemble, more so than they resemble typical plumes, since they hug the ground and spread out laterally. Here we’ve imaged an underground gas leak (~1L/min), and we looked at it when the soil was dry, and then when it was wet. Interestingly, the measured flow rate is only slightly attenuated (by about 30%) in wet soil conditions. You can see that the gas migration patterns (micro-emission points) are slightly changed when the soil gets wet.