Page 62 - Geotechnical Engineering Soil and Foundation Principles and Practice

Special Problems with Sedimentary Rocks
Special Problems with Sedimentary Rocks 57

Problems
3.1. Which is more important, recognizing a geological hazard such as an old
landslide or using a sophisticated computer program for the analysis?
3.2. What engineering problems are associated with the use of shale (a) as a fill
material, (b) as a foundation soil, (c) in a cut slope?
3.3. What weathering products would you expect from the following:
(a) granite, (b) basalt, (c) sandstone, (d) shale, (e) limestone containing
chert nodules?
3.4. What engineering problems can be associated with foundations on
limestone?
3.5. Give two alternatives when a foundation excavation encounters a clay
pocket in limestone.
3.6. (a) What is fault gouge, and how might it be identified from airphotos or
from borings? (b) What is its significance if any for building foundations?
(c) What is its significance if any for earth dams?
3.7. A house is settling and cracking, and is in line with several ground
depressions in an area known to have been mined a century or more ago.
(a) What may be happening and why did it take so long to happen?
(b) Give two alternatives for remedying the situation.
3.8. Local residents have been using a limestone sink as a dump. You are
asked to make a presentation at a meeting of the county supervisors.
Outline your presentation and prepare sketches that should help to make it
more convincing.
3.9. Sulphurous odors are detected in a neighborhood that is known to
have old coal mines. Should there be any concern for carbon monoxide
poisoning in a house built in this area? What might be done to prevent it?
3.10. Discuss problems associated with extinguishing underground coal mine
fires, and keeping them extinguished.
3.11. How does the elevation of a groundwater table influence mine cave-ins?
Is the same condition likely to occur with natural caverns? Why (not)?
3.12. A topographic map reveals a trellis drainage pattern. Where is the best area
to explore for hard rock for aggregate?
3.13. Why are shallow mines more likely to cause problems than deep mines?
3.14. How may lowering of the groundwater table influence the stability of
structures located over an abandoned room-and-pillar mine?
3.15. What is longwall mining and where was it invented?
3.16. (a) In Fig. 3.9 what is schist and what is implied by it being next to
the granite? (b) The sedimentary rock layers in Fig. 3.9 are parallel but
the limestone layer cuts across the schist layers. Explain. What is the
geological name for the boundary between the limestone and the schist?

Downloaded from Digital Engineering Library @ McGraw-Hill (www.digitalengineeringlibrary.com)
Copyright © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved.
Any use is subject to the Terms of Use as given at the website.