CIV205 SOIL MECHANICS

ASSIGNMENT #1
STUDENTS NAME: EMLIA GARCEZ DA LUZ

1. What are the three main types of rock and how are they formed?
They are igneous, sedmentary, and metamorphic. Igneous rock are formed by the
act of cooling of magma; sedmentary by rock fragmented in particles, and remains of
certain organisms that are transported by natural agents, such as wind, water, and ice,
and then deposited in layers to form sediments; metamorphic in tur are produced when
sedimentary or igneous rocks literally change their texture and structure as well as
mineral and chemical composition, as a result of heat, pressure, and shear.

2. Describe what a Residual Soil is versus a Transported Soil. Which type of soil is
located around North Bay and why?
Residual soils come from particles of the rocks that theyre origined by, and size
of particles, shape, and composition can vary widely. Transported soils are formed when
rock weathers at one site and the particles are moved to another location. In North Bay,
we have Transported Soil due to features of glacial deposits found here, such as glacial
till and glaciofluvial.

3. How are the following types of soil deposits formed: Glacial Till, Glaciofluvial,
and glaciolacustrine. Also, what are their general characteristics?

Glacial Till is formed when a glacier carries materials such as boulders, gravel,
sand and clay from one area and deposits them in another area. Till particles range from
clay-sized to boulder-sized but can sometimes weigh up to thousands of tons;
Glaciofluvial is formed due to sediments deposited by streams flowing from the
melting ice. The deposits are stratified and may occur in the form of outwash lains,
deltas, kames, eskers, and kame terraces, and are composed of stratified sand, gravel
and shingle.
Glaciolacustrine sediments are deposited by glacial meltwater in lakes, which
include ice margin lakes or other types formed from glacial erosion or deposition.
Sediments can be bedload, which are deposited at the lake margin, and suspended load,
which are deposited all over the lake.

4. What are 3 steps you should take when doing a soils exploration for a site?
They are boring, sampling and testing.

5. Name and describe 3 different methods for boring to complete soils explorations.
Auger borings: process that uses an auger, a screwlike tool, to bore a hole;
Test Pits: excavations into the earth that permit a direct, visual inspection of the
soil along the sides of the pit.
Core borings: are performed by attaching the core barrel and cutting bit to rods
and rotating them with drill.

6. Name and describe three ways of collecting a disturbed soil sample.

Shovel: samples can be obtained by digging out soil from the site;
Trial Pits: are relatively small hand or machine excavated tranches used to take
disturbed samples from groundwater.
Split-spoon: samples can be obtained with split-spoons tubes constructed of high
strength material.

7. Name and describe two ways of collecting an undisturbed soil sample.

Shelby Tube Sampler: pushing a thin tube into the soil, thereby trapping the
sample inside the tube, and then to remove the tube and sample intact.
Piston samplers. These samplers are thin-walled metal tubes which contain a
piston at the tip.

8. Name and describe two in-situ tests that can be performed during a soil
exploration.
Standard Penetration Test (SPT): utilizes a split-spoon sampler which is attaced
to the bottom of a drilling rod and driven into the soil with a drop hammer.

Cone Penetration Test (CPT): is performed using an instrumented prob with a

conical tip, pushed into the soil hydraulically at a constant rate, which reports tip
resistance and shear resistance along the cylindrical barel.

9. When taking samples, list at least five descriptive information items or

characteristics that you should use when describing a sample.
Color, size, shape, odor and consistency.

10. What is peat or muskeg and how is it formed?

Is a type of soil made up entirely of organic matter, besides is very spongy,
highly, compressible and combustible. Inorganic minerals may also be present and as
this increases the material will grade towards an organic soil. Its formed by
accumulation of partially decomposed plant remains.

11. What is the difference between a fine grained and a coarse grained soil?
Fine grained soils are defined as those who individual particles pass a No. 200
sieve, and can usually not be seen with the naked eye, even with the aid of a magnifying
glass. All fine grained soils exhibit, so some degree, the properties of plasticity and
cohesion, thus soils exhibiting fine grained characteristics are sometimes referred to as
cohesive soils.

Coarse grained soils are defined as those soils whose individual grains are
retained during the sieve test on sieves larger than, and including, the No. 200 (0.075
mm).
Grains of this size can generally be seen with the naked eye, although a handheld magnifying glass may occasionally be needed to see the smallest of the grains.
Gravel and sand are coarse grained soils.

12. What does soil consistency refer to and what type of soils is it applied to?
It refers to their degree of firmness and its applied to cohesive soils.

13. What does soil plasticity refer to and what 4 ranges of plasticity are used for
describing soils?
The plasticity of a soil refers to its ability to undergo deformation without
cracking, and whose ranges of plasticity are liquid, plastic, semisolid, and solid.

14. What is the difference between a poorly graded and a well graded soil?
A poorly graded soil is a soil that does not have a good representation of all sizes
of particles from the No. 4 to No. 200 sieve, and they are more susceptible to soil
liquefaction than well graded soil, which contains particles of a wide range of sizes (No.
4 to No. 200 sieves) and has a good representation of them.

15. Why is geologic origin important for soil exploration and identification?
Its important to know from what type of rock the soil came from, according to
presence of specific minerals and features, and moreover for what purpose it can be
used.

16. What is the groundwater table and why is it important to note during a soils
exploration?
The groundwater table is the depth at which the ground becomes saturated, or
filled to maximum capacity, with water. The location of the water table is a matter of
importance to engineers, particularly when it is near the ground surface. For example, a
soils bearing capacity can be reduced when the water table is at or near a footing. The
location of the water table is not fixed at a particular site; it tends to rise and fall during
periods of wet and dry weather, respectively. Fluctuations of the water table may result
in reduction of foundation stability; in extreme cases, structures may float out of the
ground. Accordingly, foundation design and/or methods of construction may be affected
by the location of the water table.