CEG CEG--4011 Geotechnical Engineering I 4011 Geotechnical Engineering I

Lecture #03 Lecture #03

A brief overview of
Engineering Geology Engineering Geology
L. Prieto-Portar, 2009
This radio map of the young star HLTau (center), is surrounded by a disk of gas and dust outlined within the white ellipse. The hot
gases from the star are flowing in the direction of the white arrows. A proto-planet b lies at a distance to HL Tau about twice that
as Neptune does from our sun. HL Tau is about 520 light-years from Earth, and is only 10
5
years old (Science News, 5 April 2008).
Our planet is about 5,000 million years old, formed from gaseous origins that slowly cooled to the
partly solid Earth of today.
About 4,000 million years ago a space object about the size of Mars impacted the young Earth,
and tore out a terrestrial chunk of mantle into an Earth orbit to become our Moon. The Moons
low density is similar to our mantle. The Moon has been confirmed to be similar geologically to
the Earth.
Only 65 million years ago, a smaller meteor, 16 km in diameter, struck our Earth again. The
ensuing clouds of dust killed most of the vegetation, and lead to the extinction of dinosaurs. The
evidence of this disaster is a thin layer of space-borne Iridium between the Cretaceous and the
Paleogene Periods.
About 4,600 million years ago, a solid crust formed with temperatures in excess of 100C. There
was no rain, but the Earth was shrouded in heavy clouds which was our proto-atmosphere.
Cooling below 100C brought rain and initiated weathering. But this occurred only 250 million
years ago!
There was little oxygen, since todays atmosphere is largely a product of photosynthesis.
These early soils are called proto-soils. Some are still visible in Africa and northern Europe as
granites, 3,500 million years old.
A rendered view of a meteorite hurling towards the Earth.
Artists representation of the impact of an asteroid upon Earth.
The crust has a thickness of about
10 to 40 km. It is mostly made up of
light silicates with an average = 3
g/cm
3
.
The upper and lower mantle is
about 3,000 km thick, and is made
up of metallic silicates and sulfides
with = 3.5 to 6 g/cm
3
.
The liquid core is about 2,100 km
thick, and is made up primarily of
liquid Fe and Ni, with a = 10
Dimensions (in kilometers) of the three main components of the planet Earth.
g/cm
3
. Finally, the solid inner core
has a diameter of 1,300 km and a
= 13 g/cm
3
.
Richard Oldham of Great Britain
was the first physicist to study seis-
mology. A few years later, the Cro-
atian physicist Andrija Mohorovicic
use it to map the boundary between
the mantle and the crust (now
known as the Moho discontinuity.
Suns core as a comparison to the Earths.
If it were possible to break down all
the matter found on the Earth, its
constituent elements would be
distributed as shown to the left.
Notice that the two most abundant
elements are oxygen and silicon.
Originally the Earth was 99% H
and He and 1% all other elements.
Today it is the reverse.
The aggregation started electro- The aggregation started electro-
statically and then gravity took over
with heavier elements forming an
early core.
Seismographs around the world will measure an earthquake (focus at top) at different times as
shown in the charts at right. The long wave L may travel round the world several times before
dying away. The shadow zone at the lower right is caused because the waves cannot be refracted
through certain angles. Waves curve because refraction increases with depth. Using many such
records, geophysicists can accurately measure the thickness of each layer of the earth.
Geologic Time Scale.
ears 8efore
resent (x10
6
)
Era Period Epoch
ears of
Durat|on (x10
6
)
Events
Cenozolc CuaLernary Polocene 0.01 Rising sea level
lelsLocene 2
1erLlary llocene 3 Glaciation
Mlocene 64 Rise of the Andes
Cllgocene 10 Rise of the Alps
Locene 21 Formation of Himalayas
66
aleocene 10 Rise of the Rocky Mountains
Mesozolc CreLaceous 78 Rise of mammals
!urasslc 64 Dinosaurs
1rlasslc 37 Separation of Continents
245
1rlasslc 37 Separation of Continents
aleozolc ermlan 41 Appalachian Mountains
ennsylvanlan
Carbonlferous
34
Abundant Coal formation
Mlsslsslpplan 40
uevonlan 48 Fishes and land plants
Sllurlan 30 Formation of Euramerica
Crdovlclan 67 Taconic Mountains
570
Cambrlan 63 Abundant fossils
recambrlan roLerozolc 2300 Build up of Oxygen
Archean 4200 Lack of Oxygen
Scientists still puzzle on how does heat escape from the depths of the Earth. The intense heat causes the rocks of
the mantle to slowly flow in a double boiler method that separates the top (upper 1,600 km) from the bottom
(1,300 km) zones of the mantle. The older rock (light orange) remains stuck near the bottom of the mantle. The
oceanic crusts (dark blue) sink but do not mix with the lower layer of the mantle (Science News, 20 March 1999).
This profile shows the interface between the light weight oceanic and continental crusts,
that sit and slide upon the heavier and much hotter upper mantle.
Sir Edward Bullard of Cambridge University prepared this 1965 computer fit of the single Pangea
continent.
The opening of the Atlantic.
About 200 million years ago,
the Atlantic did not exist.
!50 million years ago the
Central Atlantic was born as
North America split from
Africa.
Subsequently, South America
drifted away from Africa and
formed the South Atlantic. formed the South Atlantic.
As recent as 50 million years
ago, the entire extent of the
present Atlantic took its
present shape.
India was a small continent called Gondwana. It made
contact with the southern coast of Asia about 55 million
years ago. Since then it has advanced a further 2,000
kilometers northward into Asia. In doing so, it has
squeezed and thickened the continental crust in a region
which is now several thousand kilometers wide, pushing
up the Himalayan mountain range.
The clashing of continents releases huge amounts of CO
2
and leads to climate cooling (see Science News 10/11/08).
If present day plate motions continue, during the next 50
million years Africa will move northward and close the million years Africa will move northward and close the
Mediterranean Sea. Thus Europe and Africa will rejoin as
a single continent. California will break off and slide
northward and join with Alaska.
About 250 million years from now, most of the crusts
land masses will rejoin together to form a super-continent.
This super-continent has occurred several times in the
Earths past.
Geotechnical Engineering, by L. Prieto-Portar, August 2001
Quarks + gluons
Geology is the study of rocks, which are divided according to their origin into three types:
igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic.
The ancestor rock is igneous (from Latin ignis = fire). They form on the Earth surface when the
hot molten magma from the mantle reaches close to the surface, or actually breaks out and cools.
Depending where the magma cools, it forms a batholith, a laccolith dome, a sill, dikes, lopolith, a
volcano, lava flows or ash deposits.
The crystals in a batholith are usually very large, because cooling has taken place slowly during
several million years. In contrast, lava cools in a matter of days, resulting in tiny crystals, so small
that some rocks resemble glass (for example, obsidian).
Solidification of magma coming from the
earths mantle
Magma
Granites (light in color):
quartz, orthoclase feldspar,
plagioclase feldspar,
muscovite, biotite,
Gabbro (dark in color):
amphiboles (hornblend),
magnetite, pyroxenes (augite)
Igneous
Rocks
WEATHERING from:
1. Gravity
2. Water Erosion
3. Wind Erosion
4. Temp Erosion
5. Glaciation
6. Organic activity
7. Tectonic Action
8. Chemical
- Hydration
- Hydrolisis
- Disolution
- Oxidation
Residual Soils:
Remain in place
REMELTING:
Heat, pressure, and new
material
Classification by
temperature:
Plutons or Intrusives:
- Batholiths
- Dikes
- Siles
Extrusives:
- Volcanics (bsidian, rhyolite)
- Flows (andesites, basalts)
- Ejecta (tuff, pumice)
THE EROSIVE CYCLE
Metamorphic
Rocks
Soils
Classification depending
on size and type:
G: gravel
S: sands
M: silts
C: clays
Transported Soils:
Deposited in lakes, rivers
and oceans
Sedimentary
Rocks
Induration (clastic)
Precipitation (carbonates)
Halmirolisis & Diagenesis
Soil particles cemented with overburden
pressure with water borne iron oxides, silica.
Clastic:
Breccia (cemented angular rock)
Conglomerates (cemented rounded rock)
Sandstones (cemented sands)
Siltstones (Shales cemented silts)
Mudstones and Claystones (clays)
Precipitated:
Limestones (Chert is a Si substitute)
Dolomites (Ca Mg carbonate)
Coquinas (sea shells)
Travertines
Chalk (S carbonate)
Gypsum
REGIONAL
METAMORPHISM: without
melting: heat, pressure, and
shear
CONTACT
METAMORPHISM
Schist: foliated (pressure+temp)
Gneiss: from granite, diorite, gabbro
Quartzite: from sandstones
Marble: from limestones and dolomites
Slate, chlorites, and phyllites: from
shales and mudstones
- Siles - Ejecta (tuff, pumice)
Schist
Dyke
Volcanos
Igneous rocks at the Earths surface are subjected to weathering. This process is
complex, and may consist of one or more of the following forces acting simultaneously:
1) Gravity,
2) Ice and water (freeze-thaw cycle),
3) Wind,
4) Glaciation,
5) Tectonic action (forming mountains);
6) Organic action (nano-bacteria, insects, plant roots, etc);
7) Chemical (hydration, hydrolisis, disolution and oxidation).
Weathering breaks down the igneous rocks into soils. Depending on the particle size
and other properties, soils are classified as gravels (G), sands (S), silts (M) or clays (C). and other properties, soils are classified as gravels (G), sands (S), silts (M) or clays (C).
Soils may either (1) remain in place to form a residual soil, or (2) be transported away
and deposited in lakes, oceans or flood plains. These deposits harden into a new rock,
called sedimentary (from Latin sedimentum = settling). These rocks display the
characteristics of its parent soil and the weathering actions.
Finally, sedimentary rock may be subjected to heat and/or pressures from Earth
forces, and reform into newer rocks, called metamorphic (from Greek, meta =
change and morphe = form). The remelting of metamorphic rocks at great depths
reforms the material back to an igneous rock, and the cycle continues forever (All is
flux, Heraclitus, circa 505 BC).
References:
http://www.cropsoil.uga.edu/soilsandhydrology/images/Shale.jpg
http://www.chelseasdream.com/jpg/clay_top.jpg
http://library.thinkquest.org/05aug/00461/images/sedimentary.jpg
http://www.nuuanu.k12.hi.us/G-1/public_html/websites/Lance/images/magma.jpg
http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:ZbAmwh_lBMFZVM:http://www.canvas.be/canvas_master
/magma/canvas_magma_leuk/c_magma_mfulle_03.jpg
http://www.cliffshade.com/colorado/images/rock_cycle.gif
http://www.geology.wisc.edu/~g109/images/Life/L3_Cambrian_Life_More.jpg
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/link/images/hist_img_01_prec.jpg
http://www.karencarr.com/Images/Gallery/2004_gallery_silurian.jpg
http://www.karencarr.com/Images/Gallery/2004_gallery_devonian.jpg http://www.karencarr.com/Images/Gallery/2004_gallery_devonian.jpg
http://www.palaeos.com/Paleozoic/Permian/Images/permian.jpg
http://www.prehistory.com/dinosaurs/xanacant.jpg
http://www.paleodirect.com/imgset2/dimtro1a.jpg
http://universe-review.ca/I10-33-Triassic1.jpg
http://universe-review.ca/I10-34-Jurassic.jpg
http://www.worldbook.com/wb/images/content_spotlight/dinosaurs/cretacecous.jpg
http://www.prehistory.com/dinosaurs/brontotherium.jpg