Seven well-characterized clay-rocks have been taken from three test
sites to perform spectral induced polarization (SIP) measurements
during desiccation of these samples. These test sites include (1)
the Tournemire site (IRSN) located in south of France, (2) The Bure
test site (ANDRA) located in west of France, and (3) the Super-Sauze
earthflow located in south western of France. We dried the samples
at ambient temperature followed by heating between 65 degrees C and
105 degrees C. The quadrature conductivity, at very low-frequency,
was able to discriminate between the loss of free water from the
macropores and the loss of water in the micropores associated with
textural changes. The calcite and quartz grain size distributions
had a significant effect on the low-frequency spectrum. The inversion
of our SIP data demonstrated that the generalized Cole-Cole model
is an appropriate empirical and practical model for monitoring changes
in water content of clay-rocks. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights
reserved.