why does stuff get deeper in the ground

[ELITE]

When i go metal detecting stuff that was laying on the ground for a year gets buried 5+ inches but on videos i see on youtube or tv shows really old stuff from the 1800s or older is no more than 5 inches down, why is that?

 

[Peyton Manning]

well kid, it's biology. everyday we all lose thousands of skin cells. they add up. so in no time at all there's 5 inches of skin residue covering anything you drop
use anti bacterial gel regularly

 

[olfacere]

Any number of reasons, depending on the area. Different areas experience different amounts of deposition and the amount of deposition in any given place changes over time. Some areas don't experience enough and so they erode away. There's also gravity, the liquifying effect of water draining through the ground, the density of the soil, and probably some other stuff that hasn't come to mind yet.

Not long ago I found an huge signal in my back yard. I dug down about 4" to find a folded piece of steel hardware cloth. Turns out that it was masking a much bigger signal. I dug down another 4" and found... a mailbox. It's made of thick, heavy steel, but obviously 20th century steel. I looked down into the hole next to it and saw something else: another mailbox. For some reason, there were two mailboxes side by side in my backyard with at least 7" of dirt on top. The sad part is that, because the hardware cloth masked the deeper signal, I dug the two mailboxes with a hand spade. The moral of the story is: always bring a real shovel!

 

[wainzoid]

Ive dug several IH's only an inch or two deep and a bicentennial (1976) quarter ten inches deep on the same property...20 ft away. Go Figure. When I was a teen, we picked stones off the fields every spring. They either worked their way to the top or reproduced.

 

[smokeythecat]

Stuff generally gets buried. Soil, wind, decayed vegetation, etc.

 

[Chug And Red]

Ever watch you Garden or Flower beds During A Freeze!!! The way the Moist Ground freezes Up and Mover Upwards Wounder What Is Being Moved With it!!! I think the Name Is Something like Pingos Please Correct me if I Wrong on the Name!!! HH chug

 

[Twinkletoes]

At the last site I did I recovered coins 8" deep and other older coins laying on top of the ground. It is likely both had been dropped 40-50 years ago. One settled in the other either remained on top or eroded back out.
With that said, when I am hunting an older site, and I am choosing which targets to dig, I usually look for silver 4" deep or deeper.

 

[tmanfromtexas]

I know when I was in Chicago hunting, we hunted some of the parks there and year after year of hunting the same places starting in the Spring, we would find a few silver keepers, then it would kind of dry up until the next spring and we would find a few more silvers. I think its because the ground as it freezes and thaws, things move around and they are not covered by junk. As far as depth is concerned, I think it has to do with the amount of foot traffic rain and ground composition. Stuff in sand sinks like a torpedoed destroyer but hard packed soil like around tree roots doesnt let stuff sink as fast. Just my two cents. TMAN...

 

[TerryC]

I don't know about things going deeper in the ground. But I HAVE found that the ground gets further away every year I get older! TTC

 

[Gator Trapper]

Experience has tought me for every rock picked out of the field - it was holding two more down!!!

 

[NOLA_Ken]

One of the major factors is vegetation, all the leaves and dead grass eventually turn into soil as they decay, and every year adds another layer. Wind and rain also erode soil form one area and redeposit it in another which leads to differences in depth over time too. Rain also can cause liquifaction of certain soils which will make heavier objects sink. Tree roots commonly push things around too. Temperature can affect buried items as well, anywhere you get significant frost you'll get frost heave which is what cracks sidewalks and driveways, it can push large items up out of the ground. Down here in the summer we get heat that shrinks the soil and will occasionally cause the curbs along the road and sometimes the roads themselves to buckle and snap.

So pretty much it's all due to the ground being a dynamic moving thing, Everything in it is constantly being shifted around in some way, and it can be to different degrees from one side of a field to the other.

 

[scurvy_seadog]

Ive dug several IH's only an inch or two deep and a bicentennial (1976) quarter ten inches deep on the same property...20 ft away. Go Figure. When I was a teen, we picked stones off the fields every spring. They either worked their way to the top or reproduced.

They reproduce! I know I lived on a rock farm

 

[scurvy_seadog]

One of the major factors is vegetation, all the leaves and dead grass eventually turn into soil as they decay, and every year adds another layer. Wind and rain also erode soil form one area and redeposit it in another which leads to differences in depth over time too. Rain also can cause liquifaction of certain soils which will make heavier objects sink. Tree roots commonly push things around too. Temperature can affect buried items as well, anywhere you get significant frost you'll get frost heave which is what cracks sidewalks and driveways, it can push large items up out of the ground. Down here in the summer we get heat that shrinks the soil and will occasionally cause the curbs along the road and sometimes the roads themselves to buckle and snap.

So pretty much it's all due to the ground being a dynamic moving thing, Everything in it is constantly being shifted around in some way, and it can be to different degrees from one side of a field to the other.

Oh yah just give us the smarty pants answer.

 

[davidfl]

i think the factors mentioned are very valid; temp, i.e. freezing and heat (removing the moisture, causing soil particles to shrink), also sediment from wind blown dust and dying vegetation creates a layer covering items. these factors cause changes in density of the ground. the heavier items naturally tend to sink. i want to add vibration (near a heavy traffic roadway or near the ocean) the more vibration the faster the heavier items sink. also they sink until they encounter a more dense layer or something hard (that stops their descent) i.e. roots,clay, rocks, shells, or hard-pan. i have encountered older items at the same depths newer items. the older ones sank until their density caused them to slow down, while the newer or ones seemed to catch-up. shape is also a factor, the rocks mentioned earlier are puzzling. i would guess that, even though they are heavy and solid, that their density is lighter than the surrounding soil. or maybe their shape has a way of helping them to the surface, (like larger potato chips, when you shake the bag, the big ones rise the the top) i think all of these factors are at play, but the simple answer is that the more dense an object i,s the further it will sink. hh david