Palmyra, Nebraska Geology
at Glacial Till Winery
The Glacial Till Winery is located in the Dissected Till Plains Section of eastern Nebraska. The Winery occupies both the hilltop landforms and lower drainageway valleys. Pilot Boring GT-1 is located in the valley on the eastern edge of the vineyard property.
The episodic depositional events in the valleys result in the differential preservation of the deposits that would have recorded the history of both alluvial erosional and depositional events in the valleys. In other words, later erosional events can remove all or portions of earlier alluvium, and so on. The geologic record, as they say, is incomplete. And as a result, complex as well.
Which brings us to boring GT-1. For this boring, there are many things to learn from in this boring: depositional processes from different environments, erosional processes and resedimentation, stratigraphy, classification, soil development, secondary jointing, and weathering zones.
Each of these attributes directly control the hydrogeologic system and the nature of geotechnical properties. And each attribute is critical for understanding ground water gradients, monitoring, modeling, contaminant fate and transport, dewatering, and the design of excavations, foundations, tunnels.
In May 2025, Midwest GeoSciences Group returns to the site to drill two borings for a professional education workshop. One boring will be drilled in the drainageway valley again and another boring located on the hilltop. This is a unique opportunity to learn the field strategies for deciphering the attributes and priceless chance to gain insights and experiences about unravelling the complexities of subsurface relationships for hydrogeologic and geotechnical projects.
