Haley & Aldrich’s Adam R. Mangel authored an article on the effectiveness of geophysics for contaminated site investigation. The article appeared in the June 2026 issue of FastTIMES, a publication of the Environmental and Engineering Geophysics Society.
The article, “Beyond Anomalies and Against Assumptions: Geologic Insight and Geophysical Interpretation,” summarizes a session Adam led at the 2026 Symposium on the Application of Geophysics to Engineering and Environmental Problems. Adam describes that session as “a set of presentations that collectively made a clear point: geophysics is most effective when it is grounded in geologic understanding rather than treated as a standalone imaging tool.”
Throughout the article, Adam discusses how the panel’s speakers demonstrated the importance of integrating geologic insight in every aspect of geophysical analysis. “It should actively shape how we design surveys, constrain inversions, and judge the plausibility of competing interpretations,” he writes.
He concludes that although geophysical technology is improving, the greatest gains in using it will come from how practitioners integrate it with their existing technical expertise. “The goal is not simply to produce better images,” Adam writes. “The goal is to produce interpretations that are (hydro)geologically defensible, useful to project teams, and appropriate for the decisions at hand.”
Read the full article in this issue of FastTIMES.
