Birkbeck soil

Technical presentation

High resolution soil moisture monitoring: the potential of large-N seismology

Presented at the RAS Specialist Meeting on Environmental and Agricultural Geophysics, May 2025

A Ground-breaking Case Study in Scotland

Soil moisture plays a critical role in agriculture, flood risk, and even landslides, yet current monitoring methods leave a resolution gap at the field scale. This presentation reveals how dense arrays of STRYDE nodal seismometers can fill that gap. Using ambient seismic noise, researchers have demonstrated the ability to detect subtle subsurface moisture changes over time with high spatial and temporal resolution -without excavation or disruption to farmland.

At Crichton Royal Farm in Dumfries, a large-N deployment of over 1,200 nodes captured 6TB of data in just 28 days. The study showed a strong correlation between seismic velocity changes and soil moisture fluctuations -suggesting this technique could even help predict flooding events. Quick to deploy, self-powered, and non-intrusive, this solution opens new doors for precision agriculture, climate resilience, and environmental science.

👉 Want to learn how this scalable, cost-effective method could transform soil monitoring?

Turn bold research concepts into reality with STRYDE