Day 2: An important lesson of field work

One important lesson about field work is that sometimes, things don't go according to plan.  

The Roseau Valley, the site of our fieldwork

This morning, we drove to the Roseau Valley, in the heart of the banana-producing region of Saint Lucia.  Along with our colleagues at the Water Resources Management Agency, we began to set up an array of electrodes to take measurements of ground conductivity.  But before too long, we realized that one piece of equipment wasn't working.  Unfortunately, it wasn't the same piece of equipment that was malfunctioning yesterday- that piece was just fine.  We would inject current into the ground and receive negative voltages on the meter when we should see positives.  Sometimes we would see positives, too; the meter was more erratic than anything else. 

Hammering an electrode into the ground in Roseau Valley.

Debugging the equipment in the field.

We tried a number of controlled experiments to diagnose the problem, and even the simple tests never quite worked out.  In the end, I would say that field work today was somewhat frustrating.  We accomplished little due to faulty equipment.  Tonight we will work on the equipment again, and we will regroup or redefine our objectives in the morning.