Environmental Drilling Elfers How do Rocks Affect Environmental Drilling?

Rocks are a natural feature for many types of terrains and geological conditions that there is rarely ever a chance where geotechnical drilling professionals will not have to deal with them at some point or another, including drilling tasks that are considered to be a part of environmental drilling. Elfers residents might think that any drill is going to be able to break through any rock with enough force and enough time applied to drilling, but this is not always true. There are many types of rocks that have their own unique characteristics and properties that can make it easier or harder to drill into for geotechnical drilling professionals.

What is Rock Hardness?

One of characteristics of different types of rocks that is unique per mineral is what is called hardness. Hardness is defined as a rock’s scratch resistance, and a rock that has more hardness is said to be stronger with more scratch resistance. In the state of Florida, most of the rocks that are dealt with have relatively low hardness levels, making them easy to drill into when performing environmental drilling. Elfers residents should also be aware that this can also be a big reason why sinkholes are so common here, because the rocks can easily be broken down.

How to Get Around Rock Hardness with Drilling Equipment

Just because a rock has a high-level hardness does not mean it can’t be broken down or drilled into. In order to get through a rock with high hardness while performing geotechnical drilling, Elfers geotechnical drilling professional’s have to use special drill bits that have a higher hardness than the rock they are drilling though. For example, diamond is often the strongest kind of drill bit used because there is no other sediment that is harder than diamond. Keep in mind that using a drill bit that is too strong for a rock can also have adverse side effects to a drilling location and the equipment that is being used.

*Disclaimer: The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of Amdrill Inc*