Anyone ever see an iron pipe disintegrate like this??ÿ I was looking for a section corner today for which I have a 1925-ish record that notes only "IP."?ÿ (Around here the designation IP defaults to "iron pipe" -- the alternative "iron pin" is much less common.)?ÿ The only thing I found in the general vicinity was this bunch of rusted iron, and only one part of it (the part delineated by the arrows) even sort of resembles a pipe.?ÿ The remaining pieces look more like sheet metal.?ÿ The arrangement shown is sort of random, I dug the pieces out bit by bit, though the pipe-ish piece was the bottom-most.
Right now the closest corroborating monument is a mile to the west.?ÿ I currently have nothing to the north, east or south, and likely won't due to the nature of the land use.?ÿ I kind of need this corner, but I'm also kind of reluctant to call this collection of iron molecules the remains of an IP.?ÿ I'd feel better if I knew that someone has seen a pipe come apart like this.
Thanks!
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What's the approximate diameter??ÿ It reminds me of a car's tailpipe more than a water or gas pipe.
How far from your search coordinates?
It would have been about a 3/4" (nominal) pipe.?ÿ Search coordinates are very approximate right now (I haven't completely deciphered the 1925 map, it's more like a computation sheet with numbers every which way, and not always in agreement with each other), but it's in the intersection of a couple of private roads.?ÿ Not in the middle, but that's not very meaningful here -- this corner is in the middle of a large ranch comprising a lot of swamp & overflowed lands and under one ownership, so they can put roads and ditches wherever they want, but for the most part they follow the protracted section lines.
The reason I need to find *a* corner somewhere around here is that I have to establish the location of a section corner a mile north and a mile east of this one in order to locate a half-acre triangular title exception.?ÿ That corner falls in a major canal, so no hope of recovering anything there, I have to back it in from somewhere.
Well after you get more confident in your search coordinates. Have you ever heard of best available evidence?
Assuming of course there's not a junk yard close by.
I recall Kent posting about certain soils in his area that made very short work of unprotected iron monuments. He was driving pvc pipes and setting irons inside those. Are other iron monuments in the vicinity of this one also corroding unusually quickly?
There is an area in no. central OK called the Salt Plains.?ÿ It's about 40 or 50 sq. miles of seasonally flooded flats and a shallow lake.?ÿ The salinity of the lake is about half that of sea water.?ÿ The 19th. century GLO surveys terminated at the outer boundaries of the area.?ÿ I'm assuming this was due to the fact Washington wanted disposable farm land, which this is not.?ÿ
Fast forward to 1941.?ÿ The BLM completed the original surveys in the area and the land was used as an Army gunnery and aerial bombing range.?ÿ The monuments placed were 2" iron pipes with aluminum caps fixed at the top.?ÿ In the early '90s we recovered a good number of what was left of the monuments.
The aluminum caps above water mostly survived, but their iron pipe mounts did very poorly in the saline muck.?ÿ We dug out dozens of pipes that looked like your photo.?ÿ Some had even disintegrated into a rusty red column of granular fines.?ÿ Most still had a discernible magnetic signature.?ÿ Some of the aluminum caps were reduced to oxidized smudgy white silt.
We had an EIT with us that had some background in soils.?ÿ His take was while the salinity and pH did a good number on the iron, he suspected there was also some cathodic activity in the soils that had helped consume the iron in such a relatively short time.?ÿ Sounded like as good a guess as any to me.?ÿ ?ÿ
Are other iron monuments in the vicinity of this one also corroding unusually quickly?
The nearest iron monuments that I've found (so far) are a mile or more away and in good shape.?ÿ But this particular spot has a very gummy clay soil that's markedly different from what I've encountered elsewhere in the vicinity, so I don't have a good comparison.
The most annoying part of this aspect of the job is the amount of time I'm spending just to lock down a 1/2-acre piece of a canal that no one is ever going to use for anything but a canal.?ÿ Unfortunately I can't just show it on the map with the notation "right about here."
Some pipes are made from spiral wound flat steel.
They can look that when they fall apart.
Around here most of the pipes are old water pipe and are galvanised - they last a bit longer
this corner is in the middle of a large ranch comprising a lot of swamp & overflowed lands
Yes. In the same type of environment. Low wetlands type of soil.?ÿ The IP we were able to recover was eggshell thin from rust but perfectly formed in the soil.?ÿ We weren't able to pull out more than tiny pieces (+/- 1/2").?ÿ The pipe matched record distance to several other IPs nearby, and in better shape.
The corroded iron pipes, rebars and T-irons that I see frequently are always corroded most at the ground surface. Often there is a piece a few inches long lying on it's side and the remainder is an inch above or below the surface. Rebars are wasp waisted at the ground level or a sharp point. I just found one this AM. I have no idea why they corrode that way. The air here is warm, humid and salty. The soil is alkaline. I don't think I've seen anything like Jim's photo.?ÿ ?ÿ
I work in salty areas in the marsh.?ÿ 3/4" IP turns into a rusted 1 1/4" pipe.?ÿ Rebar becomes a sharp point.?ÿ
The salinity of the lake is about half that of sea water.
That is also true for the tap water in Tulsa.