"probe the ground" is a correct and usable phrase in written English.
It means to investigate or explore a situation or topic. Example: The detectives probed the ground for any clues that could lead them to the suspect.
Among other findings, the researchers report online in the journal Science that two crows fashioned tools from dried grass stems, a previously unknown tool, and used them to probe the ground, perhaps searching for ants.
The full-potential linear augmented plane-wave method (FP-LAPW) has been exercised to probe the ground state properties such as lattice parameter, bulk modulus, and its pressure derivative, elastic constant and structural stability of the compound SrS, SrSe, and SrTe, respectively [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12].
They use their bills to probe the ground or turn over clods of earth or small rocks looking for food.
Probe the ground between two hills with a long screwdriver.
Probe the ground very carefully with your hands or feet; you can also use a knife or another object to gently probe the area inch by inch.
Ibis use their long bills for probing the ground or mud.
The trunk probes the ground for God-knows-what and then curls back into itself like a jelly roll.
If the 770-pound lander touches down safely after its 10-month journey, it will spend three months or longer probing the ground and monitoring the weather above.
These can detect not just footsteps ten metres or so either side of a buried cable, but also a low-flying drone passing overhead, vandals damaging a railway line, a terrorist burying a bomb beside a roadway or someone probing the ground trying to find a pipeline from which to steal oil.
The de-miner must check every alarm by probing the ground gingerly with the stick.
