Engineering Geological Maps

Engineering geological maps frequently consist of basic geological maps on which

some engineering geological data have been incorporated. Engineering geological
maps and plans are used mainly for planning and civil engineering purposes. They
provide planners and engineers with information which assists them in the
planning of use of land, and the location, construction and maintenance of
engineering structures of all types. Engineering geological maps are produced on
the scale of 1:10000 or smaller whereas engineering geological plans, being
produced for a particular engineering purpose, have a larger scale.

Types:
   i. Analytical
  ii. Comprehensive
Analytical maps provide details or evaluate individual components of the
geological environment. Examples of such maps include those showing the degree
of weathering or seismic hazard. Comprehensive maps either depict all the
principal components of the engineering geological environment or are maps of
engineering geological zoning, delineating individual territorial units on a basis of
uniformity of the most significant attributes of their engineering geological
characters.

The engineering geological report accompanying the engineering geological map

should include following discussions and recommendations if any:
·         Areas to be avoided if any and mitigation alternatives.
·         Topography and slope.
·         Stability of geologic units in the site
·         Identification and extent of known or probable geologic conditions which
may result in risk to the proposed land use (such as flood, surface- and
groundwater pollution, snow avalanche, landslide, debris flow, rock fall, expansive
soil, subsidence, erosion, earthquake shaking, fault, volcanic eruption etc.). 
·         Prediction of what materials and structural features will be encountered in
proposed cuts.
·         Excavation considerations (hard or massive rock, groundwater flows).
·         General considerations of proposed fill masses in canyons or on side-hills.
·         Suitability of on-site material for use as compacted fill.
·         Recommendations concerning erosion protection on fill slopes.
·         Other recommendations required by the proposed land use, such as the angle
of cut slopes, position of drainage terraces, need for rock-fall and/or erosion
protection on cut slopes.
·         Protection from sheet flood or gully erosion, and debris flows or mud flows
·         Recommendation for additional studies like boring, test pits and trenches,
percolation tests and programmes for long-term monitoring of the site to evaluate
geological conditions (survey hubs, inclinometers, extensometers etc.)
Rock Forming Minerals

All the minerals constituting the rocks can be classified into two main types:

Essential Minerals: These are the minerals which form more than 50% of the
rocks.
Accessory Minerals: These minerals occur in limited quantities as small crystals.
The six minerals olivine, quartz, feldspar, mica, pyroxene and amphibole are the
commonest rock-forming minerals and are used as important tools in classifying
rocks, particularly igneous rocks. Except for quartz, all the minerals listed are
actually mineral groups.

Engineering Significance of Rock Forming Minerals

The civil engineers need to know the properties of rocks precisely to enable them
to consider different rocks for any required purpose, i.e., as foundation rocks, as
road meta, as concrete aggregate, as building stones, as flooring or roofing
material, as decorative material etc. All properties of rocks are, in turn, depended
on the properties of their constituent minerals. Thus, properties of civil engineering
importance such as their strength, durability and appearance of rocks can be
assessed only with the knowledge of the minerals that form rocks i.e. rock-forming
minerals. 
The economic minerals, since they are scare, do not influence the properties of
rocks and are hence irrelevant from the civil engineering point of view. However,
if they happen to occur in large quantities, their economic value will not permit
them to be used either as construction materials or as foundation sites.

Quartz
Quartz is a glassy looking, transparent or translucent mineral which varies in color
from white and grey to smoky. When there are individual crystals they are
generally clear, while in larger masses quartz looks more milky white. Quartz is
hard - it can easily scratch a steel knife blade. In many rocks, quartz grains are
irregular in shape because crystal faces are rare and quartz does not have a
cleavage (i.e. it does not break on regular flat face).

Orthoclase Feldspar
Feldspar
Feldspar is the other common, light-colored rock forming mineral. Instead of being
glassy like quartz, it is generally dull to opaque with a porcelain-like appearance.
Colour varies from red, pink and white (orthoclase) to green, grey and white
(plagioclase). Feldspar is also hard but can be scratched by quartz. Feldspar in
igneous rocks forms well developed crystals which are roughly rectangular in
shape, and they cleave or break along flat faces. The grains, in contrast to quartz,
often have straight edges and flat rectangular faces, some of which meet at right
angles.  

Plagioclase Feldspar
Mica
Mica is easily distinguished by its characteristic of peeling into many thin flat
smooth sheets or flakes. This is similar to the cleavage in feldspar except that in
the case of mica the cleavage planes are in only one direction and no right angle
face joint occurs. Mica may be white and pearly (muscovite) or dark and shiny
(biotite).

Pyroxene
The most common pyroxene mineral is augite. Augite is generally dark green to
black in co lour and forms short, stubby crystals which, if you look at an end-on
section, have square or rectangular cross-sections.  

Amphibole
The most common amphibole is hornblende. Hornblende is quite similar to augite
in that both are dark minerals, however, hornblende crystals are generally longer,
thinner and shinier than augite and the mineral cross-sections are diamond-shaped. 
Olivine
Olivine, or peridot, in the jewelry trade, is yellow-green, translucent and glassy
looking. Crystals are not common; it usually occurs at rounded grains in igneous
rocks or as granular masses.  Olivine is almost as hard as quartz; it does not have a
well-developed cleavage.  

Quartz and Feldspar are light-coloured minerals; mica, pyroxene, amphibole and
olivine are dark-coloured. The color of a rock will be determined by the
proportions of light and dark-coloured minerals present. If most of the grains are
quartz and feldspar, then the overall appearance of the rock will be light, while the
opposite will be true if the minerals are mainly mica, pyroxene, amphibole or
olivine. The color of a rock with between 25 and 50% dark minerals is
intermediate.    

Geophysical exploration General Overview

Geophysical exploration may be used with advantage to locate boundaries between
different elements of the subsoil as these procedures are based on the fact that the
gravitational, magnetic, electrical, radioactive or elastic properties of the different
elements of the subsoil may be different. Differences in the gravitational, magnetic
and radioactive properties of deposits near the surface of the earth are seldom large
enough to permit the use of these properties in exploration work for civil
engineering projects. However, the resistivity method based on the electrical
properties and the seismic refraction method based on the elastic properties of the
deposits have been used widely in large civil engineering projects.
Geophysical Exploration [ Section 5.1 : Methods of Geophysical Exploration ]
Advantages of this method are: It is a very rapid and economical method. It is good
up to 30m depth. The instrumentation of this method is very simple. It is a non-
destructive method. Disadvantages of this method are: It can only detect absolutely
different strata like rock and water. It provides no information about the sample.
Cultural problems cause interference, e.g., power lines, pipelines, buried casings,
fences. Data acquisition can be slow compared to other geophysical methods,
although that difference is disappearing with the very latest techniques.
Geotechnical investigations are performed by geotechnical
engineers or engineering geologists to obtain information on the physical
properties of soil earthworks and foundations for proposed structures and for repair
of distress to earthworks and structures caused by subsurface conditions. This type
of investigation is called a site investigation. Additionally, geotechnical
investigationsare also used to measure the thermal resistivity of soils or backfill
materials required for underground transmission lines, oil and gas pipelines,
radioactive waste disposal, and bahog bilat storage facilities. A geotechnical
investigation will include surface exploration and subsurface exploration of a site.
Sometimes, geophysical methods are used to obtain data about sites. Subsurface
exploration usually involves soil sampling and laboratory tests of the soil samples
retrieved.
Surface exploration can include geologic mapping, geophysical methods,
and photogrammetry, or it can be as simple as a geotechnical professional walking
around on the site to observe the physical conditions at the site.
To obtain information about the soil conditions below the surface, some form of
subsurface exploration is required. Methods of observing the soils below the
surface, obtaining samples, and determining physical properties of the soils and
rocks include test pits, trenching (particularly for locating faults and slide planes),
boring, and in situ tests. These can also be used to identify contamination in soils
prior to development in order to avoid negative environmental impacts.
A geotechnical exploration is the study of site subsurface
conditions with respect to your project.  All construction takes
place in or on the ground. Buildings, retaining walls, fill slopes,
excavations, pavements, pools, etc. must all be supported by the
underlying subsurface. And, conversely, these very same project
elements affect the subsurface and must be engineered
appropriately.