CENTENNIAL HONORS COLLEGE
Western Illinois University
Undergraduate Research Day 2015
Poster Presentation
Microscopic Soil Analysis alongside Conductivity and GC-FID
Shan Mei Jones
Faculty Mentor: Andrea Alveshere
Forensic Chemistry
There are several factors that can help solve a criminal case, such as hair, blood, and fingerprints to name
a few. One that may not be as familiar is soil. When someone walks with shoes on, particles are picked
up and stuck between crevices on the bottom of the shoe. This is why shoe prints can be useful in
identifying a suspect, because tread marks are different. The same is true about the soil picked up by
shoes. Microscopic analysis was performed on four different soil samples. Sample A was collected on
top of a hill, sample B by a creek, sample C from the middle of a yard, and sample D from a forest edge.
Size, color, edges, and plant vegetation were recorded. Three unknown samples were then examined and
either matched to one of the known samples or not. Success rate was 66.6%. The conductivity then
showed that each sample had different conductivity, which could have helped with the analysis of the
unknowns. A standard extraction method was then used to perform GC-FID analysis. The GC-FID data
was compared to another student’s research to determine which starting sample produced the most
accurate results.