Notes from the field

Notes

Short pieces on the methods, the standards and the things that go wrong underground. Written for the people who have to make the decision, not for other geophysicists.

Seismic · Code

ASCE 7-22 quietly made borings insufficient for site class

Nine site classes instead of six, and shear-wave velocity is now the only accepted basis. If your geotechnical report assigns a site class from blow counts, it no longer complies.

August 11, 2026 · 4 min read Magnetics · Renewables

The wells nobody recorded, under the sites everybody is developing

Estimates put undocumented orphaned wells in the United States between 310,000 and 800,000. Solar and wind developments cover large acreage in precisely the country where they were drilled.

July 28, 2026 · 5 min read SUE · Standards

What a utility quality level actually promises

QL-D, QL-C, QL-B and QL-A are not grades of effort. They describe where the information came from, and only one of them involves seeing the pipe.

July 16, 2026 · 4 min read