CE111 – GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEERING

(SOIL MECHANICS)

Lesson 2. Soil Formation - A

SOIL FORMATION

Engineering soils are formed from the physical and chemical weathering of rocks. Soils
may also contain organic matter from the decomposition of plants and animals. Physical
weathering involves reduction of size without any change in the original composition of the
parent rock. The main agents responsible for this process are exfoliation, unloading, erosion,
freezing, and thawing.

Chemical weathering causes both reductions in size and chemical alteration of the
original parent rock. The main agents responsible for chemical weathering are hydration,
carbonation, and oxidation. Often chemical and physical weathering takes place in concert.

Soils that remain at the site of weathering are called residual soils. These soils retain
many of the elements that comprise the parent rock. Alluvial soils, also called fluvial soils, are
soils that were transported by rivers and streams. The composition of these soils depends on
the environment under which they were transported and is often different from the parent rock.
The profile of alluvial soils usually consists of layers of different soils. Much of our
construction activity has been and is occurring in and on alluvial soils.

In general, soils are formed by weathering of rocks. The physical properties of a soil
are dictated primarily by the minerals that constitute the soil particles and, hence, the rock from
which it is derived. The Earth’s crust is composed if soil and rock. Rock can be defined as a
natural aggregate of minerals that are connected by strong bonding or attractive forces. For this
reason, rock is often considered a consolidated material. Soil may be defined as the
unconsolidated sediments and deposits of solid particles that have resulted from the
disintegration of rock. Soil is also assumed to include the residue of vegetable and animal life,
including civilization’s buried trash, garbage, and industrial wastes.

Soil is a particulate material, which means that a soil mass consists of an accumulation
of individual particles that are bonded together by mechanical or attractive means. In soil, voids
exist between particles, and the voids may be filled with a liquid, usually water, or gas, usually
air. As a result, soil deposits are often referred to as a three-phase material or system.

ROCK: The Source of Soils

Most of the non-organic materials that are identified as soil originated from rock as the
parent material. Rock types are grouped into three major classes-igneous, sedimentary, and
metamorphic-determined by their origin or method of formation. The type of soil that
subsequently develops relates to the rock type, its mineral components, and the climatic
condition of the area.

A. Igneous Rocks
Igneous rocks are formed by the solidification of molten magma ejected from deep
within the earth’s mantle. After ejection by either fissure eruption or volcanic eruption, some
of the molten magma cools on the surface of the earth. As a result of rapid cooling, the mineral
components solidified into small crystals and possessed a fine, interlocking texture. The molten
materials that cooled rapidly at or near the earth’s surface are called extrusive or volcanic rock
types and include basalts, rhyolites, and andesites.
Molten rock trapped deep below the surface of the earth cooled slowly. The mineral
components formed in large interlocking crystals, and coarse-textured rocks resulted. These
rocks are classified as intrusive or plutonic types and include the granites, syenites, diorites,
and gabbros.
Many of the mineral combinations in igneous rocks are unstable in the environment
existing at the earth’s surface. Upon exposure to air, water, chemicals in solution in water,
freezing temperatures, varying temperatures, and erosive factors, the rock minerals break down
to the soil types existing today. Rock whose chief mineral is quartz or orthoclase, minerals with
high silica content, decomposes to predominantly sandy or gravelly soil with little clay.
Granites, syenites, and rhyolites are in this category. Because of the high silica content, these
rocks are classified as acidic.
Rocks whose minerals contain iron, magnesium, calcium, or sodium, but little silica,
such as gabbros, diabases, and basalts, are classified as basic rocks. These rocks decompose to
the fine-textured silt and clay soils.
Rocks that are acidic such as granites are considered to be good construction materials.

B. Sedimentary Rocks
Sedimentary rocks are formed from accumulated deposits of soil particles or remains
if certain organisms that have hardened by pressure or cemented by minerals. Pressure
sufficient to harden or solidify a soil deposit results from the weight of great thickness of
overlying material.
The deposits of gravel, sand, silt, and clay formed by weathering may become
compacted by overburden pressure and cemented by agents like iron oxide, calcite, dolomite,
and quartz. Cementing agents are generally carried in solution by groundwater. They fill
spaces between particles and form sedimentary rock. Rocks formed in this way are called
detrital sedimentary rocks. Conglomerate, breccias, sandstone, mudstone, and shale are come
examples of the detrital type.
Sedimentary rock can also be formed by chemical processes. Rocks of this type are
classified as chemical sedimentary rock. Limestone, chalk, dolomite, gypsum, anhydrite, and
others belong to this category.
Sedimentary rock may undergo weathering to form sediments or may be subjected to
the process of metamorphism to become metamorphic rock.

C. Metamorphic Rocks
Metamorphism is the process of changing the composition and texture of rocks,
without melting, by heat and pressure. Metamorphic rock results when any type of existing
rock is subjected to metamorphism, the changes brought about by combinations of heat,
pressure, and plastic flow so that the original rock structure and mineral composition are
changed.
Metamorphic rocks formed from sound igneous or sedimentary rocks can be good
materials for construction. But schist, gneiss, and slate are questionable construction materials
because the foliated or banded structure can act to originate planes of weakness that affect
strength and durability.

SOIL CATEGORIES
 Soils can be grouped into two broad categories-residual or transported-depending on
the method of deposition.
  Residual soils are formed from the weathering of rock or accumulation of organic
material and remain at the location of their origin. The weathering process may be
attributed to mechanical or chemical weathering and solution weathering.
 Mechanical weathering refers to physical disintegration resulting from the effects of
wind, rain, running water, ice and frost wedging, and tectonic forces.
 Chemical and solution weathering is rock decomposition due to chemical reactions in
the rock minerals that occur from exposure to the atmosphere, temperature changes,
water, and other minerals.
 Transported soils are those materials that have been moved from their place of origin.
Transportation may have resulted from the effects of gravity, wind, water, glaciers, or
human activities.

SOIL TYPES
Gravels, sands, silts, and clays are used to identify specific textures in soils. Texture
refers to the appearance or feel of a soil. Sands and gravels are grouped together as coarse-
grained soils. Clays and silts are fine-grained soils. Coarse-grained soils feel gritty and hard.
Fine grained soils feel smooth. The coarseness of soils is determined from knowing the
distribution of particle sizes, which is the primary means of classifying coarse-grained soils.
To characterize fine-grained soils, we need further information on the types of minerals present
and their contents. The response of fine-grained soils to loads, known as the mechanical
behavior, depends on the type of predominant minerals present. Currently, many soil
descriptions and soil types are in usage. A few of these are listed below.
 Alluvial soils are fine sediments that have been eroded from rock and transported by
water, and have settled on river- and streambeds.
 Calcareous soil contains calcium carbonate and effervesces when treated with
hydrochloric acid.
 Caliche consists of gravel, sand, and clay cemented together by calcium carbonate.
 Collovial soils (collovium) are soils found at the base of mountains that have been
eroded by the combination of water and gravity.
 Eolian soils are sand-sized particles deposited by wind.
 Expansive soils are clays that undergo large volume changes from cycles of wetting
and drying.
 Glacial soils are mixed soils consisting of rock debris, sand, silt, clays, and boulders.
 Glacial till is a soil that consists mainly of coarse particles.
 Glacial clays are soils that were deposited in ancient lakes and subsequently frozen.
The thawing of these lakes has revealed soil profiles of neatly stratified silt and clay,
sometimes called carved clay. The silt layer is light in color and was deposited during
summer periods, while the thinner, dark clay layer was deposited during winter periods.
 Gypsum is calcium sulfate formed under heat and pressure from sediments in ocean
brine.
 Lacustrine soils are mostly silts and clays deposited in glacial lake waters.
 Lateritic soils are residual soils that are cemented with iron oxides and are found in
tropical regions.
 Loam is a mixture of sand, silt, and clay that may contain organic material.
 Loess is a wind-blown, uniform, fine-grained soil.
 Marine soils are sand, silts, and clays deposited in salt or brackish water.
 Marl (marlstone) is a mud (see definition of mud below) cemented by calcium
carbonate or lime.
 Mud is clay and silt mixed with water into a viscous fluid.
SOIL MINERALS

Minerals are crystalline materials and make up the solids constituent of a soil. Minerals
are classified according to chemical composition and structure. Most minerals of interest to
geotechnical engineers are composed of oxygen and silicon, two of the most abundant elements
on earth.

Quartz (a common mineral in rocks) is the principal mineral of coarse-grained soils.

Clay minerals are made up of phyllosilicates, which are parallel sheets of silicates.
Silicates are a group of minerals with a structural unit called the silica tetrahedron. A central
silicacation (positively charged ion) is surrounded by four oxygen anions (negatively charged
ions), one at each corner of the tetrahedron (Figure 1.1a). The charge on a single tetrahedron
is −4, and to achieve a neutral charge, cations must be added or single tetrahedrons must be
linked to each other sharing oxygen ions. Silicate minerals are formed by the addition of cations
and interactions of tetrahedrons. Silica tetrahedrons combine to form sheets, called silicate
sheets or laminae, which are thin layers of silica tetrahedrons in which three oxygen ions are
shared between adjacent tetrahedrons (Figure 1.1b). Silicate sheets may contain other
structural units such as alumina sheets. Alumina sheets are formed by combination of alumina
minerals, which consists of an aluminum ion surrounded by six oxygen or hydroxyl atoms in
an octahedron (Figure 1.1c, d).

The mineral particles of fine-grained soils are platy. The main groups of crystalline
materials that make up fine-grained soils, principally clays, are the minerals kaolinite, illite,
and montmorillonite. These minerals are the products from weathering of feldspar and
muscovite mica, families of rock-forming silicate minerals that are abundant on the Earth’s
surface. Kaolinite has a structure that consists of one silica sheet and one alumina sheet bonded
together into a layer about 0.72â•›nm thick and stacked repeatedly (Figure 1.2a). The layers
are held together by hydrogen bonds. Tightly stacked layers result from numerous hydrogen
bonds. Kaolinite is common in clays in humid tropical regions. Illite consists of repeated layers
of one alumina sheet sandwiched by two silicate sheets (Figure 1.2b). The layers, each of
thickness 0.96 nm, are held together by potassium ions.
 Montmorillonite has a structure similar to illite, but the layers are held together by weak
van der Waals forces. Montmorillonite belongs to the smectite clay family. It is an aluminum
smectite with a small amount of Al +3 replaced by Mg2+. This causes a charge inequity that is
balanced by exchangeable cations Na + or Ca2+ and oriented water (Figure 1.2c). Additional
water can easily enter the bond and separate the layers in montmorillonite, causing swelling. If
the predominant exchangeable cation is Ca 2+ (calcium smectite), there are two water layers,
whereas if it is Na+ (sodium smectite), there is usually only one water layer. Sodium smectite
can absorb enough water to cause the particles to fully separate. Calcium smectites do not
usually absorb enough water to cause particle separation because of their divalent cations.
Montmorillonite is often called a swelling or expansive clay. Worldwide, it is responsible for
billions of dollars in damages to structures (on ground and below ground).
SURFACE FORCES AND ADSORBED WATER

If we subdivide a body, the ratio of its surface area to its volume increases. For example,
a cube with sides of 1in. has a surface area of 6in.2 If we subdivide this cube into smaller cubes
with sides of 0.1in., the original volume is unchanged, but the surface area increases to 60in. 2
The surface area per unit mass (specific surface) of sands is typically 50ft2 per lb, whereas for
clays it is as high as 50 × 105 ft 2 per lb (montmorillonite). The specific surface of kaolinite
ranges from 50 × 103 to 100 × 103 ft2 per lb, while that of illite ranges from 325 × 103 to 500
× 103 ft2 per lb. The surface area of 1/10lb of illite is equivalent to the area of a football field.
Because of the large surface areas of fine-grained soils, surface forces significantly influence
their behavior compared to coarse-grained soils. The clay–water interaction coupled with the
large surface areas results in clays having larger water-holding capacity in a large number of
smaller pore spaces compared with coarse-grained soils.
The surface charges on the particles of fine-grained soils are negative (anions). These
negative surface charges attract cations and the positively charged side of water molecules from
surrounding water. Consequently, a thin film or layer of water, called adsorbed water, is bonded
to the mineral surfaces. The thin film or layer of water is known as the diffuse double layer
(Figure 1.3). The largest concentration of cations occurs at the mineral surface and decreases
exponentially with distance away from the surface (Figure 1.3).
Surface forces on clay particles are of two types. One type, called attracting forces, is
due to London–van der Waals forces. These forces are far-reaching and decrease in inverse
proportion to l2 (l is the distance between two particles). The other type, called repelling forces,
is due to the diffuse double layer. Around each particle is an ionic cloud. When two particles
are far apart, the electric charge on each is neutralized by equal and opposite charge of the ionic
cloud around it. When the particles move closer together such that the clouds mutually
penetrate each other, the negative charges on the particles cause repulsion.
Drying of most soils, with few exceptions (e.g., gypsum), using an oven for which the
standard temperature is 105 ± 5°C cannot remove the adsorbed water. The adsorbed water
influences the way a soil behaves. Toxic chemicals that seep into the ground contaminate soil
and groundwater. Knowledge of the surface chemistry of fine-grained soils is important in
understanding the migration, sequestration, rerelease, and ultimate removal of toxic
compounds from soils.

Reference:
1. Principles of Geotechnical Engineering by Braja M. Das 5 th edition.
2. SOIL MECHANICS FUNDAMENTALS by Muni Budhu 2015 edition