Chapter 2 - Soil Formation
Chapter 2 - Soil Formation
• Soil
• Weathering
• Principal
Types of Soil
• Describing
Coarse-Grained
Soil
• Describing
Fine-Grained
Soil
Physical Properties
Deals with the physical and mechanical properties of homogeneous specimen of
undisturbed and remolded soil. It discusses those properties which serves as convenient criteria for
distinguishing between different soils and provide instructions for describing soils adequately.
SOIL
Soil is a natural aggregate of mineral grains with or without organic constituent that can be
separated by such gentle mechanical means of agitation of water. It is the only thing in this world
that can be composed of the three phases of matter, which are solid, liquid and gas. The typical
combination of soil is a combination of soil particles (solid), water (liquid) and air (gas). The
combination is generally referred to as soil mass, which range from a variety of soft, highly
compressible silts, clays or organic matter to firmer formations of sand, gravel and rock.
The solid phase may encompass a wide range of shapes, and may vary in size from large
pieces hard, dense rock of boulders to very tiny particles invisible to the naked eye. The liquid
phase consists of water containing various amounts and types of dissolved electrolytes. The gas
phase consists of typically air, although organic gases may also exist in area of high biological
deposits. All of these materials may occur over a wide range of compositions, densities, moisture
and air content.
WEATHERING OF SOILS
Implicit within the definition of soil is the notion that soil is the product of decomposition
from rock sources. There are four stages can be identified in the formation of soil: 1) Weathering
and Transportation; 2) Deposition; 3) Sediment alteration; and 4) Movements of the earth’s crust.
Weathering is the breakdown of rocks and minerals into soils. Rock is a natural aggregate
of mineral grains connected by a strong and cohesive forces. Rocks are broken into three major
groups: sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic.
➢ Igneous Rocks
These rocks are frequently regarded as parent material because they are the first
product to be formed by the cooling of molten magmas, or by the recrystallization
of older rocks under heat and pressure great enough to render them fluid.
➢ Sedimentary Rocks
Sedimentary rock is the product of deposition of plant and animal remains and of
materials formed by the chemical decomposition and physical disintegration of
igneous, sedimentary or metamorphic rocks. Sedimentary rocks are generally
classified into two major sediment types, chemical and elastic. Chemical group fit
the sediments formed by materials that have been transported in solution and later
precipitated. The elastic, or mechanical sediment evolved from materials that were
transported and deposited primarily by mechanical means.
➢ Metamorphic Rocks
Metamorphic rocks constitute a major part of the earth’s crust. These are rocks that
originally belonged to other groups but were altered by chemical and physical
influences, including elevated temperatures and mechanical stresses or pressures in
the earth’s crust. Two categories of metamorphism have been identified, contact
metamorphism and dynamic metamorphism.
Contact metamorphism occurs primarily as a result of temperature increase,
frequently in rather narrow zones around hot magma masses. Dynamic
metamorphism results primarily from the action of differential pressure, commonly
related to major earth movements and deformations. Such rock bear sign of
mechanical strain addition to recrystallization and neomineralization. The strain
from dynamic metamorphism is frequently depicted in the form of comparable to
the metallic structure found in rolled metal types.
Soils are formed from the rock cycle:
Weathering may occur without transportation and subsequent deposition, in which case a
“residual soil” is formed. Weathering can be classified, simply, as physical or chemical. The more
common agents associated with physical weathering are water, temperature and stress relief
(uplift). Chemical weathering can occur at normal (surface) temperatures or can be associated with
temperatures in excess of 100˚C and pressures greater than one atmosphere.
The products of weathering can be transported via wind, water, ice or mass movements
(landslides). In all cases further degradation of the parent material or alteration of the sediment can
occur.
When the transportation velocity is slow enough, particles in suspension will settle. As the
sediment thickness builds up, further changes in the soil can occur. These changes could be
chemical or physical. Taken to extremes of pressure or temperature a new rock form may emerge.
Any movement of the earth’s crust, abrupt or gradual, uplift or subsidence, will change the
environmental conditions under which the soil exists. The soil formation cycle then recommences.
Since all soils result from weathering of minerals (organic soils are excluded from this
discussion) present in the parent rock, it can be argued that the presence of primary rock-forming
minerals in soil is indicative of their stability or the time for which weathering has been proceeding.
PRINCIPAL TYPES OF SOIL
The engineer should be suspicious of the presence of organic material if the soil has dark
brown, dark gray or black color. If the organic odor cannot be distinguished, it can sometimes be
brought out by a sight amount of heat.
The distinction between silt and clay cannot be based on grain size because the significant
physical properties of the two materials are related only indirectly to the size of the particle. Since
both are microscopic, physical properties other than grain size must be used as criteria for field
identification.