ENGINEERING GEOLOGY 15CV35

Module -1
Introduction:
Geology is a Branch of Natural science deals with the study of the Earth, It is also known
as Earth science. For studying the Earth in detail the subject of geology has been divided
into various branches, which are as follows:

Application of Earth Science in Civil Engineering Practices

1. Mapping: The engineering geologist has to prepare a geological map of the area based
on aerial photo and satellite imagery interpretation and field observation. Subsurface
geological features are also mapped.
2. Exploration: In this stage the engineering geologist explore the area based on
exploration techniques. The engineering geologist works from the planning stage.
Supervise the exploration works and records the data for further interpretation.
3. Project Planning: Project planning is the most important aspect in civil engineering.
The civil engineer plans the various stages. The engineering geologists plans and prepares
geologic feasibility and developmental parameters reports, which are useful to the civil
engineer for planning the project schedule.
4. Surface water: The engineering geologist and the civil engineer together prepare surface
–water mapping. Both study the volume of total runoff, drainage basin characteristics and
sedimentary process in the basin. Weathered areas, silting potential and erosion potential
are also estimated before planning any hydraulic structure in the basin.
5. Groundwater: Groundwater is the major problem in the majority of civil engineering
works. The engineering geologist studies in detail the occurrence, movement, structural
controls and hydro geological properties of the rocks. Hydro geological maps are prepared
for civil engineering purposes.
6. Slope Stability: Geological parameters of possible slide regions are studies
7. Geological Structures: Field investigation is carried out for selection of a suitable area.
Detailed surface-subsurface studies are conducted and surface and subsurface maps are

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prepared. The engineering geologist and the civil engineer conduct in-situ tests for
foundation materials, supervise the construction methods and monitor the structure after
completion of the work.
8. Tunneling: The tunnel site selected is based on a detailed study of the region. The civil
engineer and the geologist have to conduct in-situ tests for estimation of weathered zone
thickness, depth of hard rock, structural features etc.
9. Earthquake: The engineering geologist studies the seismic nature of the project site. He
examines the seismic zoning map of the country, evaluates active and inactive faults and
keeps the historical record of the earthquake of the region in which the civil engineer will
prepare a seismic design of structure.
Geological features of the civil engineering have to be studied a detail before execution of
the work. The engineering geologist must work from the exploration stage to the end of the
project.
INTERNAL STRUCTURE OF EARTH
Our Earth is a cosmic body. It is one of the nine members of he Solar system of which
Sun is the central star. The nine planets constituting the Solar system has been named as
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. In its shape, he
Earth is commonly described as a spheroid, it has an equatorial diameter of 12,757.776km
and a polar diameter of 12,713.824km and thus has an equatorial bulge.
At present the Earth is the only planet believed to be sustaining life other planets have
shown no signs of life on them. For systematic scientific investigations, the earth is
commonly differentiated into three parts; they are atmosphere, lithosphere and
hydrosphere. Each forms an extensive field of study, volumes of information have been
collected about each of these parts during last hundred years or so but findings of last
three decades have made our understanding about these parts very clear. Only most
important characteristics of these parts have been summarized below.
ATMOSPHERE
The outer gaseous part of earth starting from the surface and extending as far as 700km and
beyond is termed atmosphere. Although extending for such great distances, the atmosphere
makes only one-millionth part of the mass of earth; this is because of its gaseous
composition. It is now fairly established that the atmosphere possesses a layered structure.
Their well-defined layers or zones of the atmosphere are surface upward, troposphere,
stratosphere and ionosphere.
LITHOSPHERE
It is the solid part of the earth and in a broader sense includes all the solid materials
composing the earth from surface downwards, although sometimes-specific terms are used
for deeper earth
zones. Recent detailed seismic studies of the body of the earth have shown that it is
composed of three well-defined shells, Crust, Mantle, Core.

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The Crust: - Is the topmost shell of the earth, which has a thickness of 30-40 km in the
continents and 5-6 km in the oceans. There is a striking variation in the materials or rocks,
as they are called, composing the crust over the continents and ocean floors. The oceanic
crust is made up of heavier and darker rocks called basalts compared to lightcolored and
light-density, granitic rocks of the continental crust. When considered as a part of the total
structure of the earth, crust makes only an insignificant part represented by a thin layer,
similar to the skin of an apple. As regards he chemical composition of the crust, analyses
made by Clarke and Gold Schmith, using rocks from different geographic regions of the
crust have all shown that when expressed in terms of oxides, the crust has Silica as the most
dominant component, its value lying above 50% by volume in the oceanic crust and above
62% in the continental crust. Alumina is the next important oxide, varying between 13-
16% followed by Iron Oxides (8%), Lime (6%), Sodium (4%), Magnesium (4%),
Potassium (2.5%) & Titanium (2%). The crust itself shows a complicated structure both in
make-up and compositional variations.

Figure 1.0 INTERNAL STRUCTURE OF EARTH

The Mantle: - At the base of the crust materials of the earth become greatly different in
many properties from those overlying them in the crust. These materials appear to form a
nearly
homogeneous zone till a depth of 2900 km is reached. This zone of materials lying between
crust and a depth of 2900 km is known a MANTLE. It is made up of extremely basic
materials, called ultra-basic rocks, which are believed to be very rich in iron and magnesium

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but quite poor in silica. Such rock names as Periodotites, Dunite. This One is characterized
with a high density, increasing steadily with depth further; the mantle material is believed
to be highly plastic in nature. Many of the most important geological process such as
earthquakes and formation of mountains are believed to have their origin in this zone.
The Core: - It is the third and the innermost structure shell of the earth, which is clearly
marked by the seismic evidence. It starts at a depth of 2900 km below the surface and
extends right up to the center of the earth at 6370 km. The material making g the core is
found to be from seismic studies only strikingly different from that making the other two
shells in one major aspect, in elastic properties. The material has no shear resistance, which
makes it nearer to liquid than to a solid body. It has a very high density, above 10gms/cubic
centimeter, at the mantle –core boundary. Nothing can be said about the composition of the
core. According to one, widely favored view, the core is made up of Iron and Nickel alloy
material.

MINERALOGY
Minerals have been defined as naturally occurring substances, mostly inorganic, that are
characterized by a definite chemical composition and a definite atomic structure. Since
rocks which make up the earth are simply natural aggregates of minerals, a study of
minerals is of fundamental importance understands the elements of science of geology. The
branch of geology dealing with the study of minerals is designated as Mineralogy. Each
mineral is generally characterized with a set of qualities some of which are always
distinctive and differentiate it from other minerals. Some of these qualities or properties
may be studied from the body of the minerals, its shape, color, shine, hardness etc.; these
are termed physical properties. Some other qualities like the behavior towards light require
extremely thin sheets or sections of the minerals and are best studied with the help of a
microscope. These are termed optical or microscopic properties. A third group of properties
involving. These are the physical properties most useful for mineral identification:
HABIT
A mineral may sometimes show a definite and characteristic arrangement in its outer
appearance or physical shape. This shape is expressed by the term Habit and is typical in
the case of many minerals. A few common habits with examples are given below. Fibrous
habit: -When the mineral is made up of fibers, generally separable, e.g. in Asbestos.
Columnar habit: - When the mineral is composed of thin or thick columns, sometimes
flattened, e.g. in Hornblende.
Bladed habit: - The minerals appears as if composed of thin, blade like structure, e.g. in
Kyanite.
Lamellar habit: - The plates or leaves are separable, e.g. Vermiculite.
Granular habit: - The mineral shows numerous grains packed together, e.g. in Chromite.
Acicular habit: - When a mineral surface is covered by large, conspicuous, overlapping
prominences, e.g. in Malachite.

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Mammillary habit: - When a mineral surface is covered by large, conspicuous, overlapping

prominences, e.g. in Malachite.
Reniform habit: - The rounded prominences exhibit a resemblance to a kidney shape, e.g.
in Hematite.
Foliated habit: - When the mineral consists of thin and separable leaves, e.g. in Mica.
Radiating habit: - When the fibers or needles are arranged around a central point, e.g. in
Iron Pyrites.
Tabular habit: - The mineral is flat thatn elongated e.g. in Calcite, Orthoclase.
Globular habit: - Or Botryoidally, when the minerals is in the form of bulbous overlapping
projections, e.g. in Hematite

COLOUR
Minerals show great variety of colors. The color of a substance is its appearance in light
and depends upon the composition and structure of the substance is its appearance in light
and depends upon the composition and structure of the substance. In minerals, colors may
be either
of inherent of of an exotic nature; the former is related to the chemical composition and is
more diagnostic whereas exotic colors are due to small traces of impurities and may vary
within wide limits. Metallic minerals commonly show greater consistency in colors than

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the non-metallic minerals. Some minerals show peculiar phenomena connected with color.
Of these, the following are interesting and important.
Play of Colors: - It is the development of a series of prismatic colours shown by some
minerals on turning about in light. The colors change in rapid succession on rotation,
example: Diamond.
Change of Colors: - It is similar to play of colors except that rate of change of colors on
rotation is rather slow; each color continues over a larger space in the mineral, ex: -
Labradorite.
Iridescence: - Some minerals show rainbow colors either in their interior or on their surface.
This termed iridescence.
Tarnish: - Sometimes the surface color is different, rather dull, than the color of the mineral
as seen on freshly fractured surface; ex: Chalcopyrite, an ore of copper. Although color is
never taken as a conclusive property in the identification of minerals, it is invariably studied
first and is generally helpful.
STREAK
The streak of a mineral is the color of its powder. This becomes important in the sense that
for some minerals, the color is entirely different from that of their powder. This has been
found true in certain or minerals, while most of the other minerals exhibit a white streak:
and, streak does not help in distinguishing those minerals. The important minerals offering
characteristic color-streak combinations are given in table.

The streak of mineral can be readily observed by scratching it on a streak plate, which is
made up of unglazed porcelain or roughened glass. While determining streak for a mineral,
care should be taken to scratch it from its obscure part, and to give only a small scratch,
producing a small quantity of its powder.
LUSTER
The Shining / Brilliance / Reflection of light from the surface of mineral. The luster of
minerals varies with the nature of their surface smooth / rough and the quantity of light
reflected. The luster of mineral can be divided into two groups.
i)Metallic. ii)Non-metallic.

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DIAPHENEITY:
Diaphaneity is the ability of the mineral to transmit light through it. The following
terms are used to describe the varying degree of transmission of light.
Descriptive Terminology:

FRACTURE:
The fracture is the nature of the broken surface of mineral. The breakage of a
mineral in a direction other than that of cleavages. Fracture is described according to the
breakage pattern, i.e. the appearance of the broken surface.

(i) Even fracture-Appearance of a mineral in its broken surface is Smooth.

Mineral examples: Chert, Mica.
(ii) Uneven fracture- when the mineral breaks with very rough and coarse surfaces.
Mineral examples: Chromite and various other minerals.
(iii) Conchoidal fracture- when a mineral breaks with curved Surfaces or concentric
Rings or half moon shape.
Mineral example: Quartz

Hardness: The hardness of a mineral is the resistance it offers to abrasion, which is

determined by observing the comparative ease or difficulty in scratching it with another
mineral of known hardness. It is always expressed by Moh's Scale of Hardness given
below-

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Table-1.1 Moh’s Scale Of Hardness

A mineral with lowest hardness is talc and the mineral with the maximum hardness is
Diamond. It has been observed that a soft mineral like Talc and Gypsum can be scratched
with a Fingernail. A steel knife can cut Apatite and Orthoclase but not Quartz. The
average hardness of a normal fingernail may be up to 2.5 whereas the hardness of
penknife is 6.5
SPECIFIC GRAVITY
It is defined as the ratio of its weight to the weight of an equal volume of water. Strictly
speaking, the weight of water should be taken at 4o C, as the temperature variations bring
a slight change in the weight of after of a certain fixed volume. In fact, the specific gravity
of a mineral depends upon the weight and spacing of its atoms. A mineral possessing
heavier and closely spaced atoms will have a high specific gravity: whereas, a mineral
possessing lighter and widely-spaced atoms will have a low specific gravity. The specific
gravity of the mineral is thus, in fact a representation of its atomic structures. All minerals
have been found to possess a specific gravity varying between 1 to 20: but most of them do
have specific gravities varying between 2 to 7.
MISCELLANEOUS
Besides the above properties, minerals may show some specific and rare qualities that
often become helpful in their identification. Some of these special properties are
explained below:
Magnetism: - Some minerals have natural magnetism in them to an Appreciable Extent.
Example is magnetite.
Electricity: - In some minerals heating may develop an electric charge. These are called
pyro electric minerals. Examples quartz.
Fluorescence: - A few minerals have the property of glowing or emitting light when they
are exposed to radiation. This property is called Fluorescence and mineral fluorite shows
this Property.

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Fusibility: - Minerals behave differently on heating to elevated temperature. Some Melt

easily at lower temperatures whereas other require very high Temperature.
CLASSIFICATION OF MINERALS

DESCRIPTION OF MINERALS:
1 Quartz Group
Form - Granular
Colour - (varieties of quartz)
Streak - Colourless
Luster - Vitreous
Cleavage – Absent
Fracture – Conchoidal to uneven
Hardness – 7 [High]
Sp. gr. – Low to Medium.
CC - Si 02

Occurrence– widely distributed all over India occurs Beach Sand, River sand.

Uses: (1) Manufacture of glass, porcelain

(2) Flux in metallurgical operation
(3) Agates are used as Ornaments
(4) Amethysts are considered as semiprecious stone
(5) Pure quartz crystal shows piezoelectricity
(6)Quartz plates are used in controlling frequencies in radio circuits,radar,ultrasonic and
multiple telephone lines.
(7) Fibre quartz wires are frequently used for transmission of telephone messages. Each
minute fibre wire can send large messages.
(8) Quartz is used in refractories
(9) Pure silica is used in ceramics
(10)Pure sand, free from impurities is used in manufacturing Sand paper and Abrasive
cloth

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3. Mica Group

4. Garnet Group

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5. Amphibole Group

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7. Carbonate Group

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