Electrical resistivity measurements provide a semiquantitative method for estimating the water content of a rock. Techniques for measuring resistivity along tunnel walls and in horizontal drill holes were used in the Area 12 tunnel complex at the Nevada Test Site prior to the Atomic Energy Commission’s Hardtack Phase II test series during the fall of 1958. The results indicate that in future underground tests where the amount of water in the rock must be determined, resistivity measurements can be used to estimate water content, with only a limited number of samples needed to check the results.
: Archeological Investigations at the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission's Nevada Test Site and Nuclear Rocket Development Station . Frederick C. V. Worman.