The most common soil and soft rock sampling tool in the US is the Standard Split Spoon.

Split spoon tubes split longitudinally into halves and permit taking a soil or soft rock sample. The tube size is designated as an NX$.$ The NX outside diameter is Do $=50\mathrm{.}8mm(2$ inches$)$ and its inside diameter is $Di=34\mathrm{.}9mm(1-\frac{3}{8}$ inches$).$ This small size has the advantage of cheapness, because it is relatively easy to drive into the ground. However, it has the disadvantage of disturbing the natural texture of the soil. In soft rocks, such as young limestone$,$ it will destroy the rock to such a degree that it may be classified as a "sand".

A better sampler is the Shelby $($or thin$-$tube sampler$).$ It has the same outside diameter of $2$ inches $($although the trend it to use $3$ inches$).$

Compare the degree of sample disturbance of a US standard split$-$spoon sampler, versus the two Shelby thin$-$tube samplers $(2^{\text{'}\text{'}}$ and $3^{\text{'}\text{'}}$ outside diameters$)$ via their area ratio $A_c($a measure of sample disturbance$).$