Soil Temperature Logging
Definition
Placement of calibrated temperature dataloggers at the grave depth during excavation, allowing the actual thermal history of the burial environment to be retrospectively reconstructed and used in ADD calculations.
- Method
- Calibrated dataloggers placed at grave depth during excavation
- Purpose
- Reconstructs the actual thermal history of the burial environment
- Application
- Feeds accumulated degree day (ADD) calculations for burial interval
- Advantage
- Replaces assumed or nearby weather-station temperatures with site-specific data
Common questions
Why not just use nearby weather station data instead?+
Surface air temperature at a weather station can differ substantially from the temperature at grave depth, which is buffered by soil insulation, moisture and depth, so a logger placed in situ gives a far more accurate input for postmortem interval estimates.
When in an investigation is soil temperature logging useful if the burial has already been excavated?+
Once the grave is opened the original burial period has passed, so loggers are typically left in the emptied grave for a follow-up period to characterise the site's thermal behaviour, which is then used to model or calibrate the temperature history during the actual burial.
Related terms
- Accumulated Degree Days (ADD)
- The sum of daily mean temperatures above a threshold (usually 0 °C) over a period of interest. Used as a measure of...
- Burial Interval
- The elapsed time between placement of the body in the ground and the time of recovery. Distinct from the post-mortem interval (time...
- Minimum Date Evidence
- Artefacts (coins, currency notes, dated packaging, mobile phones) recovered from a burial whose manufacture date establishes that burial cannot have occurred before...
- PFIDAC
- Post-mortem Forensic Index of Decomposition and Alteration in Context: a UK-developed scoring protocol that standardises the description of decomposition stages in buried...
- Pollen Stratigraphy
- The analysis of pollen assemblages at different depth horizons within the grave fill to establish a seasonal or annual chronology. A pollen...