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These aquifers lie hundreds of feet underground, below shallow aquifers and clay layers, and they contain clay layers that are especially susceptible to compaction when water is extracted.

“There were four crews out there doing surveys, site analysis, for safety, for soils compaction, for environmental issues, utilities issues,” Soboroff said.

In humans, embryonic cell compaction is a crucial step in the normal development of an embryo.

Frequent harvesting activities — such as done on palm oil plantations — and the removal of ground vegetation leads to further soil compaction, causing rain to run off the surface instead of entering groundwater reservoirs.

The instrument is called a “compaction tool” in Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel, “Dune,” on which the films are based.