In our travels through the Murrumbidgee irrigation district, we undertook a soil assessment in irrigated cotton soils. As part of our soil evaluation we started up a pipe siphon from the irrigation channel down one of the many rows.
We captured some footage of the water flowing preferentially through the large cracks in the soil and as the water began to fill and dismantle the dispersive surface soil crust.

I think a time-lapse video might be on the cards in future!