ARTICLE 1 PRACTICAL IMPORTANCE OF
INDEX PROPERTIES
In geotechnical engineering, more than in any other field
of civil engineering, success depends on practical experi-
ence. The design of ordinary soil-supporting or soil-sup-
ported structures is necessarily based on simple empirical
Tules, but these rules can be used safely only by the
engineer who has a background of experience. Large
projects involving unusual features may call for extensive
application of scientific methods to design, but the pro-
gram for the required investigations cannot be laid out
wisely, nor can the results be interpreted intelligently,
unless the engineer in charge of design possesses a large
amount of experience.
Since personal experience is necessarily somewhat lim-
ited, the engineer is compelled to rely at least to some
extent on the records of the experiences of others. If
these records contain adequate descriptions of the soil
conditions, they constitute a storehouse of valuable infor-
mation, Otherwise, they may be misleading. Conse-
quently, one of the foremost aims in attempts to reduce
the hazards in dealing with soils has been to find simple
methods for discriminating among the different kinds of
soil in a given category. The properties on which the
distinctions are based are known as index properties, and
the tests required to determine the index properties are
classification tests.The nature of any soil can be altered by appropriate
manipulation. Vibrations, for example, can transform a
loose sand into a dense one. Hence, the behavior of a
soil in the field depends not only on the significant proper-
ties of the individual constituents of the soil mass, but
also on those properties that are due to the arrangement
of the particles within the mass. Accordingly, it is conve-
nient to divide index properties into two classes: soil
grain properties and soil aggregate properties. The prin-
cipal soil grain properties are the size and shape of the
grains and, in clay soils, the mineralogical character of
the smallest grains. The most significant aggregate prop-
erty of cohesionless soils is the relative density, whereas
that of cohesive soils is the consistency.
The discussion of soil grain and aggregate properties
is preceded by a description of the principal types of soil,
and it is followed by a condensed review of the minimum
requirements for adequate soil descriptions to be incorpo-
rated in the records of field observations.ARTICLE 2 PRINCIPAL TYPES OF SOILS
The materials that constitute the earth's crust are rather
arbitrarily divided by the civil engineer into the two cate-
gories, soil and rock. Soil is a natural aggregate of mineral
grains that can be separated by such gentle mechanical
means as agitation in water. Rock, on the other hand, is
a natural aggregate of minerals connected by strong and
permanent cohesive forces. Since the terms “strong” and
“permanent” are subject to different interpretations, the
boundary between soil and rock is necessarily an arbitrary
one. As a matter of fact, there are many natural aggregates
of mineral particles that are difficult to classify either as
soil or as rock, In this text, however, the term soil will
be applied only to materials that unquestionably satisfy
the preceding definition.
Although the terminology described in the preceding
paragraph is generally understood by civil engineers, it
is not in universal use. To the geologist, for example, the
term rock implies all the material that constitutes the
earth’s crust, regardless of the degree to which the mineral
particles are bound together, whereas the term soil is
applied only to that portion of the earth's crust that is
capable of supporting vegetation. Therefore, the civil
engineer who makes use of information prepared by
workers in other fields must understand the sense in which
the terms soil and rock are used.On the basis of the origin of their constituents, soils
can be divided into two large groups, those that consist
chiefly of the results of chemical and physical rock weath-
ering, and those that are chiefly of organic origin, If the
products of rock weathering are still located at the place
where they originated, they constitute a residual soil.
Otherwise they constitute a transported soil, regardless
of the agent that performed the transportation,
Residual soils that have developed in semiarid or tem-
perate climates are usually stiff and stable and do not
extend to great depth. However, particularly in warm
humid climates where the time of exposure has been long,
residual soils may extend to depths of hundreds of meters.
They may be strong and stable, but they may also consist
of highly compressible materials surrounding blocks of
less weathered rock (Article 47.12). Under these circum-
stances they may give rise to difficulties with foundations
and other types of construction. Many deposits of trans-
ported soils are soft and loose to a depth of more than a
hundred meters and may also lead to serious problems,Soils of organic origin are formed chiefly in situ, either
by the growth and subsequent decay of plants such as
peat mosses or by the accumulation of fragments of the
inorganic skeletons or shells of organisms. Hence a soil
of organic origin can be either organic or inorganic, The
term organic soil ordinarily refers to a transported soil
consisting of the products of rock weathering with a more
or less conspicuous admixture of decayed vegetable
matter.
The soil conditions at the site of a proposed structure
are commonly explored by means of test borings or test
shafts. The inspector on the job examines samples of the
soil as they are obtained, classifies them in accordance
with local usage, and prepares a boring log or shaft record
containing the name of each soil and the elevation of its
boundaries. The name of the soil is modified by adjectives
indicating the stiffness, color, and other attributes. At a
later date the record may be supplemented by an abstract
of the results of tests made on the samples in the
laboratory.The following list of soil types includes the names
commonly used for field classification.
Sand and gravel are cohesionless aggregates of
rounded subangular or angular fragments of more or less
unaltered rocks or minerals, Particles with a size up to 2
mm are referred to as sand, and those with a size from
2 mm to 200 mm as gravel. Fragments with a diameter
of more than 200 mm are known as boulders.
Hardpan is a soil that has an exceptionally great resis-
tance to the penetration of drilling tools, Most hardpans
are extremely dense, well-graded, and somewhat cohesive
aggregates of mineral particles.
Inorganic silt is a fine-grained soil with little or no
plasticity, The least plastic varieties generally consist of
more or less equidimensional grains of quartz and are
sometimes called rock flour, whereas the most plastic
types contain an appreciable percentage of flake-shaped
particles and are referred to as plastic silt. Because of its
smooth texture, inorganic silt is often mistaken for clay,
but it may be readily distinguished from clay withoutlaboratory testing. If shaken in the palm of the hand, a
pat of saturated inorganic silt expels enough water to
make its surface appear glossy. If the pat is bent between
the fingers, its surface again becomes dull. This procedure
is known as the shaking test. After the pat has dried, it
is brittle and dust can be detached by rubbing it with the
finger. Silt is relatively impervious, but if it is in a loose
state it may rise into a drill hole or shaft like a thick
viscous fluid. The most unstable soils of this category are
known locally under different names, such as bull’s liver.
Organic silt is a fine-grained more or less plastic soil
with an admixture of finely divided particles of organic
matter. Shells and visible fragments of partly decayed
vegetable matter may also be present, The soil ranges in
color from light to very dark gray, and it is likely to
contain a considerable quantity of H;S, CO,, and various
other gaseous products of the decay of organic matter
which give it a characteristic odor. The permeability of
organic silt 1 very low and its compressibility very high.Clay 18 an aggregate of microscopic and submicro-
scopic particles derived from the chemical decomposition
of rock constituents. Tt is plastic within a moderate to
Wide range of water content. Dry specimens are very
hard, and no powder can be detached by rubbing the
surface of dried pats with the fingers. The permeability
of clay is extremely low. The term gumbo is applied,
particularly in the western United States, to clays that are
distinguished in the plastic state by a soapy or waxy
appearance and by great toughness. At higher water con-
tents they are conspicuously sticky,
Organic clay is a clay that owes some of its significant
physical properties to the presence of finely divided
organic matter. When saturated, organic clay is likely to
be very compressible, but when dry its strength is very
high. It is usually dark gray or black and it may have a
conspicuous odor,Peat is a somewhat fibrous aggregate of macroscopic
and microscopic fragments of decayed vegetable matter.
Its color ranges between light brown and black. Peat is
so compressible that it is almost always unsuitable for
supporting foundations, Various techniques have been
developed for carrying earth embankments across peat
deposits without the risk of breaking into the ground, but
the settlement of these embankments is likely to be large
and to continue at a decreasing rate for many years.
If a soil is made up of a combination of two different
soil types, the predominant ingredient is expressed as a
noun, and the less prominent ingredient as a modifying
adjective. For example, silty sand indicates a soil that is
predominantly sand but contains a small amount of silt.
A sandy clay is a soil that exhibits the properties of a
clay but contains an appreciable amount of sand.
The aggregate properties of sand and gravel are
described qualitatively by the terms loose, medium, and
dense, whereas those of clays are described by hard, stiff,medium, and soft. These terms are usually evaluated by
the boring foreman or inspector on the basis of several
factors, including the relative ease or difficulty of advanc-
ing the drilling and sampling tools and the consistency
of the samples. However, since this method of evaluation
may lead to a very erroneous conception of the general
character of the soil deposit, the qualitative descriptions
should be supplemented by quantitative information
whenever the mechanical properties are likely to have an
important influence on design. The quantitative informa-
tion is commonly obtained by means of laboratory tests
on relatively undisturbed samples (Article 11.3), or by
suitable in situ tests (Articles 11,4 and 11,5).
A record of the color of the different strata encountered
in adjacent borings reduces the risk of errors in correlating
the boring logs. Color may also be an indication of a real
difference in the character of the soil. For example, if the
top layer of a submerged clay stratum is yellowish or
brown and stiffer than the underlying clay, it was probably
exposed temporarily to desiccation combined with weath-
ering. Terms such as mottled, marbled, spotted, or speck-
led are used when different colors occur in the same
stratum of soil. Dark or drab colors are commonly associ-
ated with organic soils.Under certain geological conditions soils form that are
characterized by one or more striking or unusual features
such as a root-hole structure or a conspicuous and regular
stratification, Because of these features, such soils can
easily be recognized in the field and, consequently, they
have been given special names by which they are com-
monly known. The following paragraphs contain defini-
tions and descriptions of some of these materials.
Till is an unstratified glacial deposit of clay, silt, sand,
gravel, and boulders,
Tuff is a fine-grained water- or wind-laid aggregate
of very small mineral or rock fragments ejected from
volcanoes during explosions.
Loess is a uniform, cohesive, wind-blown sediment,
and is commonly light brown. The size of most of the
particles ranges between the narrow limits of 0.01 and
0.05 mm. The cohesion is due to the presence of a binder
that may be predominantly calcareous or clayey. Because
of the universal presence of continuous vertical root holes,
the permeability in vertical direction is usually much
greater than in horizontal directions; moreover, the mate-
rial has the ability to stand on nearly vertical slopes, True
loess deposits have never been saturated. On saturation
the bond between particles is weakened and the surface
of the deposit may settle.Modified loess isa loess that has lost its typical charac-
teristics by secondary processes, including temporary
immersion, erosion and subsequent deposition, chemical
changes involving the destruction of the bond between
the particles, or chemical decomposition of the more per-
ishable constituents such as feldspar. Thorough chemical
decomposition produces loess loam, characterized by
greater plasticity than other forms of modified loess.
Diatomaceous earth (kieselguhr) is a deposit of fine,
generally white, saliceous powder composed chiefly or
wholly of the remains of diatoms, The term diatom applies
to a group of microscopic unicellular marine or fresh-
water algae characterized by silicified cell walls.
Lake marl or boglime is a white fine-grained powdery
calcareous deposit precipitated by plants in ponds. It is
commonly associated with beds of peat.
Marl is a rather loosely used term for various fairly
stiff or very stiff marine calcareous clays of greenish color,Shale is aclastic sedimentary rock mainly composed of
silt-size and clay-size particles. Most shales are laminated
and display fissility; the rock has a tendency to split along
relatively smooth and flat surfaces parallel to the bedding,
When fissility is completely absent, the clastic sedimen-
tary deposit is called mudstone or clay rock. Depending
on clay mineralogy, void ratio, and degree of diagenetic
bonding or weathering, compressive strength of shales
may range from less than 2.5 MPa to more than 100 MPa.
Adobe is a term applied in the southwestern United
States and other semiarid regions to a great variety of
light-colored soils ranging from sandy silts to very plas-
tic clays.
Caliche tefers to layers of soil in which the grains are
cemented together by carbonates deposited as a result of
evaporation. These layers commonly occur at a depth of
several meters below the surface, and their thickness may
range up to a few meters. A semiarid climate is necessary
for their formation,Varved clay consists of alternating layers of medium
pray inorganic silt and darker silty clay. The thickness of
the layers rarely exceeds 10 mm, but occasionally very
much thicker varves are encountered. The constituents
were transported into freshwater lakes by melt water at
the close of the Iee Age. Varved clays are likely to com-
bine the undesirable properties of both silts and soft clays.
Bentonite is aclay with a high content of montmorillon-
ite (Article 4), Most bentonites were formed by chemical
alteration of voleanic ash. In contact with water, dried
bentonite swells more than other dried clays, and saturated
bentonite shrinks more on drying.
Each term used in the field classification of soils
includes a great variely uf different materials, Further-
more, the choice of terms relating to stiffness and density
depends to a considerable extent on the person who exam-
ines the soil. Consequently, the field classification of soils
is always Tore or less uncertain and inaccurate, More
specific information can be obtained only by physical
tests that furnish numerical values representative of the
properties of the soil.The methods of soil exploration, including boring and
sampling, and the procedures for determining average
numerical values for the soi] properties are discussed in
Chapter 2.