Definition of "vadose" [vadose]

• Of, relating to, or being water that is located in the zone of aeration in the earth's crust above the ground water level. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Such transition zones are areas of high microbial activity and diversity and occur between saturated and vadose parts in soils, at the boundary of aquatic sediments and the water column, or in tidal regions."
• "Planning work for the deep vadose zone has been given another four or five years to allow DOE to develop new technologies for cleaning up the soil and preventing the contamination from moving into the ground water."
• "The vadose zone includes contamination that can be too deep to just dig up at 250 or 300 feet below the surface of the ground."