Geohydrological properties of selected badland sediments in Saskatchewan,Canada

Geological and seasonal weather variations govern the geohydrological properties of the Avonlea badlands in Saskatchewan, Canada. Three surface sediments exhibiting distinct lithologic variations were found: a steeply sloped and fissured sandstone; a mildly sloped and popcorn-textured mudrock; and a flat and eroded pediment. The fines content increased from the dry to the wet state, with contents of 17–33 % seen for sandstone, 4–98 % for mudrock, and 21–42 % for pediment. The water adsorption capacity was found to be highest for mudrock (w _l = 96 % and w _p = 47 %), followed by sandstone (w _l = 39 % and w _p = 31 %), and then by pediment (w _l = 31 % and w _p = 23 %). The soil water characteristic curves of sandstone and mudrock showed bimodal distributions with a low air entry value (6 and 9 kPa) pertaining to drainage through cracks and a high air entry value (160 and 92 kPa) associated with flow through the soil matrix. The pediment presented a unimodal soil water characteristic curve with a single matrix air entry value of 4 kPa. The saturated hydraulic conductivities for sandstone, mudrock, and pediment were measured as 8.5 × 10^?6, 4.0 × 10^?8, and 1.8 × 10^?5 m/s, respectively.