Engineering Geology

What you'll learn

• Explain the role of engineering geology in civil projects, describe the Earth’s structure and plate boundaries, and estimate the effect of geologic rates over a design life.
• Identify common rock-forming and problem minerals from hardness, cleavage, luster, streak, specific gravity and acid reaction, and explain the engineering significance of clay minerals and sulfides.
• Classify igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks, relate rock type to engineering behavior, and estimate intact rock strength from field tests and point load results.
• Describe discontinuities systematically, calculate RQD, assign a Rock Mass Rating, and check rock slopes for plane, wedge and toppling failure.
• Explain physical and chemical weathering, describe weathering grades and soil profiles, and compute phase relationships for weathered and residual soils.
• Recognize glacial and postglacial deposits and their landforms, predict their engineering properties, and use gradation coefficients to distinguish sorted from unsorted soils.
• Read geologic maps and cross-sections, describe orientation by strike and dip, and calculate apparent dip, true thickness and the attitude of a plane from three boreholes.
• Describe aquifers, aquitards and hydraulic head, and apply Darcy’s law, layered conductivity and the Thiem equation to seepage and well problems.
• Classify landslides, explain their causes and triggers, analyze shallow slides with the infinite slope model, and outline investigation and stabilization methods.
• Explain earthquake sources, waves, magnitude and intensity, compute Vs30, assign an ASCE 7-22 site class, and identify secondary earthquake hazards.
• Recognize karst, subsidence, frost, permafrost, expansive and collapsible soil hazards, estimate drawdown and thaw settlement, and select mitigation measures.
• Plan a staged site investigation, correct SPT results, interpret CPT data, write standard borehole logs, and structure a geotechnical report that states its uncertainties.