Knouzm in Brazil

[J_Player]

I bought a Harbor Freight laser thermometer a few years back - works fine for me. Seems like I paid about $30 for it. I use it in the lab when doing experiments that involve heat to tell me if something is cooled enough for me to touch it or if the chemical reaction is finished or whatever.

I worked on various types of IR systems for the military when I was a consultant doing all things wild and esoteric like image signal processing and I can verify with Carl - IR is a waste of time as a treasure hunting tool. Save your money and buy a good metal detector or if you can dowse get a couple of coat hangers.
Goldfinder

Yes, the infrared thermometers are an amazing tool. They can be used to measure the temperature of skin, walls, rotating machinery, bearings, flames, and a lot of things that are harder to measure with other methods. But they suck for trying to find small buried items. If anyone thinks they may find some good treasure hunting results with an infrared thermometer, they don't need to spend $600 or more. The $30 Harbor Frieght model works just as well. The sensing parts are all the same. And you can find these on ebay new for a similar price. Try out the cheap model and see if it helps you find treasure. If it doesn't work for finding treasure, then you have a good tool for measuring temperature around the home and lab.

.... And you don't have the bad feeling you wasted $600 or $3500!

Best wishes,
J_P

[Geo]

Last days a person called me, he want my thermocamera. He want to make some experiments and after it to go for treasure hunting.
As he said me one of the team has a device who bombard the ground (i don't know with what rays) so after it the thermocamera has the ability to "see" the objects inside the soil. I did not meet him still.
If i will go for the experiment, i will inform the forum

Regards

[Toni]

Please, one more question for thermal imagers. A search for buried hole? 1-2 days after rain. And then check with the detector?

[J_Player]

Please, one more question for thermal imagers. A search for buried hole? 1-2 days after rain. And then check with the detector?

You can expect a thermal imaging camera to find buried objects more easily when there is a large temperature change at the soil surface. This can be seen best when the ground surface is hot during the day and cold in the evening. The best times to look are expected to be when the ground becomes cold after sundown.

It is also expected a thermal imaging camera will find large objects close to the surface more easily than smaller objects, and objects that are buried deep.

I would expect you can find buried objects more easily when there has not been rain for at least a few days. My opinion is dry soil works better, but I don't know from actually finding treasure. I do know that variations in damp ground cause very large temperature changes which could mask the location of a large buried non-soil object.

Best wishes,
J_P

[Toni]

Thank you very much for your reply.
My theory: find out where the thermal imager was disturbed land. Excavated pit and buried.
Buried pit is wetter, cooler .(??)In the disturbed soil may be buried metal.With a camera but not search metal land disturbance. A detector check.

[J_Player]

Thank you very much for your reply.
My theory: find out where the thermal imager was disturbed land. Excavated pit and buried.
Buried pit is wetter, cooler .(??)In the disturbed soil may be buried metal.With a camera but not search metal land disturbance. A detector check.

You will find large differences in temperature on the surface of the soil depending on the moisture content, the sun shining, the wind, and the humidity.

People report that for finding buried metal, the afternoon and early evening is best. I have read no reports about finding disturbed soil. But I have experience from using Infrared thermometers, and cameras. Some examples:

1. Digital thermometer:
When using an ifrared thermometer, the surface temperature changes for the same soil when you move the thermometer from shadow to sunshine at close distance. You will see sometimes up to 50 degrees difference, but usually 10-20 degrees cooler in shadows of the same soil. When the same soil changes from wet to dry, you will also see changes maybe the same as caused by shadows or less.

From a larger distance, maybe 5-10 meters small shadows are not seen, only the larger shadows. But the temperature of the ground can be seen to change when the ground is changed. For example, ground with a grass lawn shows a different temperature than the same ground with no grass or plants on it. And when the ground changes from soil to concrete, or to asphalt, or other kind of soil, then the temperature usually shows a change. These changes are easiest to see when there is good sunlight on the surface (day time).


2. Thermal imaging camera:
A thermal imaging camera is very good at finding very small differences in temperature and showing them in an image. I have not used these cameras for locating treasures, but I have taken them outside on occasions to see what I they would show. You will find a thermal imaging camera shows images of the area where you point it. You will also see images of things that do not exist... In a parking lot, you may see images of cold shadows where a car was parked recently. You may see images of footprints if you have a good quality thermal camera that is set for the temperature of a surface where somebody walked. You may see underground pipe locations if conditions are good. You will definitely see wet spots on the ground and on other surfaces. You may even see damp or wet objects behind walls. You may see a lot of other things I did not think to look for at the time.

Since you are looking for disturbed soil or for caves, a thermal imaging camera may be able to find temperature differences you are looking for. If the disturbed soil has the same consistency as the soil around it, then it may be difficult to see as a temperature difference. Especially if the soil has weathered to blend with the surrounding soil.

But if someone dug a hole recently and covered it back with the same soil, it will not have the same density of the soil around it. This means it will not absorb or retain water the same as the surrounding soil, and the evaporation of water will not be the same unless the density/compaction is the same. In this condition, I would expect a thermal imaging camera to show a different temperature in the location of the re-filled hole when the temperature of the soil is changing, maybe in the late afternoon. Or maybe in full sunlight if the wind is blowing hard, and not any plants on the surface.

If this same hole was dug and refilled more than 100 years ago, then maybe enough time has passed to allow natural geophysical forces to cause the fill dirt to compact and become like the surrounding soil. Or maybe not. I never checked this. If the disturbed soil has settled long enough to become the same as the surrounding non-disturbed soil, then you will not see a temperature difference caused by different density.

In any case, it is expensive to rent or to buy a thermal imaging camera. Make sure you are using one that is sensitive to very slight temperature differences in the temperature range you expect to see at the soil.

Best wishes,
J_P