Basic Environmental And Engineering Geology

ENVIRONMENTAL AND ENGINEERING GEOLOGY Basic F. G. Bell Research Associate, British Geological Survey, UK; formerly Professor and Head of Department of Geology and Applied Geology, University of Natal, South Africa Whittles Publishing Published by Whittles Publishing Limited, Dunbeath, Caithness, KW6 6EY, Scotland, UK www.whittlespublishing.com Distributed in North America by CRC Press LLC, Taylor and Francis Group, 6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300, Boca Raton, FL 33487, USA © 2007 F.G.Bell All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise without prior permission of the publishers. ISBN-10 1-904445-02-0 ISBN-13 978-1-904445-02-9 USA ISBN 978-1-4200-4470-6 The publisher assumes no responsibility for any injury and/or damage to persons or property from the use or implementation of any methods, instructions, ideas or materials contained within this book. All operations should be undertaken in accordance with existing legislation and recognised trade practice. Whilst the information and advice in this book is believed to be true and accurate at the time of going to press, the author and publisher accept no legal responsibility or liability for errors or omissions that may be made. Printed by Athenæum Press Ltd., Gateshead, UK iv Preface As society becomes more aware of the significance of the environment, so environmental issues assume more importance. Environmental geology plays a vital role in the physical environment of humans and so should be appreciated by all those who are involved in some way with this aspect of the environment from environmental geologists, through environmental scientists and managers, and planners to civil engineers, mining engineers and architects. In addition, engineering geology is intimately associated with the human environment, in particular, with its infrastructure from routeways to reservoirs. Again many of those individuals referred to should find the book of value. With this in mind, the book examines the influence of geohazards on the environment; the significance of soil and water resources; and the impact of mining, waste disposal and pollution and contamination on the environment. It also considers various aspects of construction that are involved in the development of our infrastructure that allow society to function as it does. Land evaluation and geological construction materials are therefore taken into account. Hence, the book provides not only an integration of the basic essentials of environmental and engineering geology that should be of interest to the well informed reader but it also should provide a text for undergraduates who are studying these two aspects of geology. In addition, it should provide material for those students following courses in those subjects mentioned previously. Last but not least, numerous suggestions for further reading are provided for each chapter to allow the interested and conscientious reader to pursue the subject matter further. F. G