"Gotta push!": How to achieve the best GEO-MRI results

Who in Germany doesn't know Heinrich Zille's saying: "You have to push!"?

(Note: translated more precisely with "Gotta press!")

At the ICE door when getting on/off the high-speed train, and at other important places in daily life - a truism that is easily forgotten in the hustle and bustle of the moment...

However, it also applies to the GEO-MRI method - here called "Direct Push" - in order to achieve the best results through direct contact between the measuring equipment and the underground formation. This is the best way to record hydrological parameters such as porosity | hydraulic conductivity, etc., and, with the appropriate experience, to obtain an idea of the basic lithological components (sand | silt | clay).

This is achieved by pushing a drill rod into the ground and then positioning the tip of the probe in the underground formation before the actual measurement takes place. Easier said than done!

I have only been able to observe the procedure once (@Vista-Clara Boot Camp 2022 | Lower Saxony) and have not yet carried it out myself. Hence, the method remains a theoretical matter for me so far, which hopefully can be transposed into a practical exercise in the form of a project in the near future (if so, then most likely in the USA, where the method is now regularly used. Time will tell...)

Fig.1: My first and so far only opportunity to observe the so-called "Direct-Push" method as a special application of the conventional borehole GEO-MRI (see top panel image: Vista-Clara Boot Camp in Engensen | NI, September 2022). Looking back, it was on this day that the strong attraction to the entire Vista-Clara Inc. GEO-MRI programme blossomed and ultimately paved the way for my practical training on the equipment (Peru | USA, 2023). Vista-Clara Inc.'s latest publication on the subject of "Direct Push" explains the method in detail, plus everything that goes with it (data, interpretation, etc.). Well worth reading for anyone interested in this GEO-MRI method and the associated technology! (see: centre | bottom panel image)

Ditto: Chapeau to Vista-Clara Inc. for further developing the prototype into a technically sophisticated measuring instrument ready for serial production!

Carpe Diem | "Gotta push!" | Direct-Push | CPT