b'Environmental geophysics Environmental geophysicsknow about spotting the various bits of badFor those interested in reading about science/scientific scams that you are likelydowsing and its validity, the results of to come across in your career. Greg has aa study run in Germany in the 1980s is few case histories in there that are worthworth a lookinterestingly this article a look. Additionally, he has included a fewis one of the references in the AG paper interesting websites that make for some funthat I lambaste here. In the initial study readingparticularly when you have actualthe original authors concluded that there work to do, but would prefer to be cruisingwere a very small percentage of people the web. who actually had the ability to find water by dowsing. The data were re-evaluated I guess what has got me going on thisin 1995 (https://link.springer.com/subject is an article that a colleague recentlyarticle/10.1007/BF01134560) and these spotted in the refereed journal Appliedresearchers found that there was no more Mike HatchGeophysics. The article is titled Vein widththan a random link between claims of Associate Editor for measurement of groundwater on Earthsdowsing ability and actual ability to locate Environmental geophysics surface using semiconductor laser light andwater. This experiment involved modifying michael.hatch@adelaide.edu.au proton precession magnetometer (https:// a two-story barn so that water pipes could www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/ be randomly located under the floor of S0926985118306682?via%3Dihub). Soundsthe second story. Dowsers were required interesting enough from the title, but it goesto locate the pipes. When the data were downhill from there quite quickly. Mostre-examined it was found that there were Fake science of us are at least accustomed to articlesa number of people who located the water that conclude that using a number of toolspipes at a rate that appeared statistically Welcome readers to this issues column onto identify a given target is a reasonablesignificant, but that, when the experiment geophysics applied to the environment.approach. We are not accustomed towas repeated a number of times, those In this column I would like to continue aseeing that one of these techniques isthat were successful during one run of discussion about something that bothersdowsing or water divining. This articlethe experiment were not successful again, me, but is not necessarily part of my remitacknowledges that there are a large numberwhile others suddenly were successfulas the Associate Editor for Environmentalof studies that actually find that dowsingsuggesting that the results were random.Geophysics. I am concerned about growingdoes not work, but nevertheless insist that fake science and then, ultimately, howtheir results on the Deccan Traps, in Pune,In the process of researching this piece I this fake science is applied to geophysics.India are valid. It also introduces a laser- was amazed to find a larger than expected I wrote about a similar subject quite earlybased survey technique that ostensiblynumber of articles that espoused crazy in my tenure as Preview Associate Editor,measures the offset of a laser beam in ansciencemostly having to with dowsing, and it seems to me like the time is right toaligned box. Beam offsets are then relatedbut also the ability of the human body to continue the discussion. to temperature and pressure variationdetect incredibly small variations in the that apparently occurs over the edges ofEarths magnetic field (for many this is the When I first started looking into this topicburied water in fractured rock aquifers; theapparent base theory on how dowsing and in 2015, I started a folder on my computerlocations of these offsets are used to detectfeng shui works). Along the way I found the called badscience; every now and thenthe width of the fractures at depth. The(apparently refereed) article that somewhat someone sends me an interesting referenceworkings of this laser box are not nearly welldescribes the development of the laser and I add it to the folder. One of the firstenough explained, although there are twodevice described above (www.j-asc.com/(and most interesting) things that someonemostly unrelated equations presented thatVOLUME-6-ISSUE-1- JANUARY-2019/ article sent me isnt actually bad science. It is angive a theoretical base for the method.number 114). Three of the authors appear article that appeared on page 1 of VolumeSmall scale magnetics surveys were run toon both papers. The opening paragraph 1 of the first issue of Geophysics (Januarycorroborate the existence of groundwaterof the introduction is a good place to start 1936) titled Black magic in geophysicalat the 15 locations where the dowsers(perhaps obviously), and I quote directly:prospecting by Dr Ludwig Blau (https:// indicated that fractures existed as, so far library.seg.org/doi/10.1190/1.1437076). Itas I can tell, these authors, among others,The earths is composed of a magneticis about some of the oil detecting scamsfeel that it is possible that dowsers react togrid like system somewhat like the perpetrated in the oil industry in the 1930s.variations in the magnetic field. The dualsegments of an organ with intersecting It is an entertaining bit of writing that is stillproblem that a) water in fractures is rarelylines. These grid lines are called ley lines right on target today. Interestingly it wasassociated with magnetic field variation;or geoelectromagnetic field (GEM) (Jishan reprinted in the Leading Edge in its entiretyand b) there is likely to be a large amount1995), and they can vary in intensity from in 1983 (and maybe should be reprinted yetof magnetic field variation in the basalts ofplace to place, based on variations in again). the Deccan Traps that are likely to obscuregravitational force, the presence or absence anything subtle. The presence of water isof large mineral deposits like quartz, and Another article that I have come across, thatconfirmed at two of 15 sites that foundthe presences of underground streams or is also not in itself bad science but is partgroundwater using resistivity soundings,large aquifers, all of which can alter the of the story, is by Greg Hodges who wrotewhich to me prove little other than that theyelectromagnetic background on the earth a piece for the 2005 SAGEEP Conferenceneed to drill to test these targets. I reviewsurface (Hacker, 2008; Harvalik, 1978).titled Voodoo methods: Dealing with thequite a few articles every year, and for me dark side of geophysics (https://library.seg. one of the most frustrating aspects of thisI just looked up ley lines and was org/doi/10.4133/1.2923476). Really, thispublication is that it appears to me that indismayed. Interestingly, this article is not article spells out everything you need tothis case the refereeing process has failed. referenced in the article that I review here.29 PREVIEW FEBRUARY 2020'