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sondage

English translation: core sampling

13:08 Dec 16, 2010
French to English translations [PRO]
Tech/Engineering - Environment & Ecology / Soil pollution checks
French term or phrase: sondage
This term appears in a document discussing, among other hazards of a building site project, procedures to be followed for investigating potential soil pollution on a 'brownfield' industrial site being re-developed.

"Sondages préalables à réaliser par l'entreprise de terrassement."

and

"Dépollution du sous sol (zones repérées par les travaux préliminaires de sondages effectués par XXX)"

and a few other very similar occurrences, referring also to hidden underground services.

I have found various entries in the glossary, including 'bore hole', 'survey', 'sample', 'analysis', and a few others that seemed to me less likely. I'm just a bit worried about the way of fitting it into my sentence, as I can't quite swallow "Prior hole-boring to be carried out..." ;-)

I think 'survey' may be the best solution albeit leaving out as it does the idea of boring holes (which I feel quite sure is involved here), but is there a term to refer to a 'survey using bore-holes' — and specifically, is there a dedicated term for this in this particular field?
Tony M
France
Local time: 19:54
English translation:core sampling
Explanation:
I think it may well be this.

We used to find drilled samples of this kind in our garden (a tin mining area).

See this ref in relation to taking core samples on brownfield sites.

http://www-g.eng.cam.ac.uk/mmg/environmental/al-tabbaa.html
Selected response from:

Evans (X)
Local time: 18:54
Grading comment
Selected automatically based on peer agreement.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
4 +5core sampling
Evans (X)
4sounding (or probing)
Drmanu49
4trial holes
kashew
4ground investigation
B D Finch
3sample collection
Carlos Segura


  

Answers


6 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
sounding (or probing)


Explanation:
seems more appropriate here.

Drmanu49
France
Local time: 19:54
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish, Native in FrenchFrench
PRO pts in category: 90
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11 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +5
core sampling


Explanation:
I think it may well be this.

We used to find drilled samples of this kind in our garden (a tin mining area).

See this ref in relation to taking core samples on brownfield sites.

http://www-g.eng.cam.ac.uk/mmg/environmental/al-tabbaa.html

Evans (X)
Local time: 18:54
Works in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 20
Grading comment
Selected automatically based on peer agreement.

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Emma Paulay: Picture on page 5 here: http://epppublications.com/Documents/11-1-1.pdf
42 mins
  -> thanks Emma, useful ref. I think these cores are also taken for determining geological history and climate change in the Antarctic - a pretty widespread technique.
agree  Jean-Claude Gouin
1 hr
  -> thanks, 1045
agree  Yvonne Gallagher: seems to fit
2 hrs
  -> thanks, gallagy2
agree  Caroline Schena
2 hrs
  -> thanks, Caroline
agree  CFournier: oui, la définition que donne Termium en français de "core sampling" est tout à fait juste dans ce contexte, même si "sondage" semble moins précis que "core sampling"..
2 hrs
  -> thanks CFournier
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27 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
sample collection


Explanation:
This would seem to fit.

Carlos Segura
United Kingdom
Local time: 19:54
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in SpanishSpanish, Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 8
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1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
trial holes


Explanation:
"Carroting" was not specified so I think this covers the exploration.

Example sentence(s):
  • Trial Holes should be a minimum of 2.1m deep (3m for regionally important aquifers). ... Sketch of site showing measurements to trial hole location and
kashew
France
Local time: 19:54
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 56
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2 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
ground investigation


Explanation:
Though core sampling would probably be one of the techniques used,one should not rule out other techniques. You mention underground services, and core drilling would certainly not be used for detecting these. So I think that it is safer to use a more general term that would include core sampling, trial holes, sonar etc.




    Reference: http://www.soils.co.uk/investigation.htm#cpb
B D Finch
France
Local time: 19:54
Works in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 39
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