What is Stratigraphy?

Stratigraphy- The branch of geology that seeks to understand the geometric relationships between different rock layers
(called strata), and to interpret the history represented by these rock layers.

Stratigraphy is a key concept to modern archaeological theory and practice. Modern excavation techniques are based on
stratigraphic principles. The concept derives from the geological use of the idea that sedimentation takes place according
to uniform principles. When archaeological finds are below the surface of the ground (as is most commonly the case), the
identification of the context of each find is vital in enabling the archaeologist to draw conclusions about the site and about
the nature and date of its occupation. It is the archaeologist's role to attempt to discover what contexts exist and how they
came to be created. Archaeological stratification or sequence is the dynamic superimposition of single units of
stratigraphy, or contexts.

Contexts are single events or actions that leave discrete, detectable traces in the archaeological sequence or stratigraphy.
They can be deposits (such as the back-fill of a ditch), structures (such as walls), or "zero thickness surfaciques", better
known as "cuts". Cuts represent actions that remove other solid contexts such as fills, deposits, and walls. An example
would be a ditch "cut" through earlier deposits. Stratigraphic relationships are the relationships created between contexts
in time, representing the chronological order they were created. One example would be a ditch and the back-fill of said
ditch. The temporal relationship of "the fill" context to the ditch "cut" context is such that "the fill" occurred later in the
sequence; you have to dig a ditch before you can back-fill it. A relationship that is later in the sequence is sometimes
referred to as "higher" in the sequence, and a relationship that is earlier, "lower", though this does not refer necessarily to
the physical location of the context. It is more useful to think of "higher" as it relates to the context's position in a Harris
matrix, a two-dimensional representation of a site's formation in space and time.
Public Domain Image by the US Dept. of Interior.
Contact- A boundary that separates different strata or rock units.

Steno's Laws of Stratigraphy

Image from J. P. Trap: bermte danske mnd og kvinder, 1868

Nicholas Steno (1638-1686) was a Danish-born pioneer of geology, and is considered to be the father of stratigraphy.

Nicholas Steno's observations of rocks layers suggested that geology is not totally chaotic. Rather, the rock layers
preserve a chronological record of Earth history and past life.

He developed three fundamental principles of stratigraphy, now known as Steno's Laws:

1) Law of Original Horizontality Beds of sediment deposited in water form as horizontal (or nearly horizontal) layers
due to gravitational settling.

2) Law of Superposition In undisturbed strata, the oldest layer lies at the bottom and the youngest layer lies at the top.
3) Law of Lateral Continuity Horizontal strata extend laterally until they thin to zero thickness (pinch out) at the edge of
their basin of deposition.

Other Important Principles of Stratigraphy

4) Law of Cross-Cutting Relationships An event that cuts across existing rock is younger than that disturbed rock.
This law was developed by Charles Lyell (1797-1875).

5) Principle of Inclusion Fragments of rock that are contained (or included) within a host rock are older than the host
rock.

Unconformities
Unconformity A surface that represents a very significant gap in the geologic rock record (due to erosion or long
periods of non-deposition).

There are 3 main types of unconformities:

1) Disconformity A contact representing missing rock between sedimentary layers that are parallel to each other.
Since disconformities are parallel to bedding planes, they are difficult to see in nature.
2) Angular Unconformity A contact in which younger strata overlie an erosional surface on tilted or folded rock layers.
This type of unconformity is easy to identify in nature.

Image provided by FCIT. Original image from Textbook of Geology by Sir Archibald Geikie (1893).

3) Nonconformity A contact in which an erosion surface on plutonic or metamorphic rock has been covered by younger
sedimentary or volcanic rock.

4) Paraconformity- A contact between parallel layers formed by extended periods of non-deposition (as opposed to being
formed by erosion). These are sometimes called "pseudounconformities").

Unconformities VS Bedding Planes

Unconformities represent huge gaps in time! The nonconformity between the Vishnu Schist and overlying sedimentary
layers in the Grand Canyon represents 1.3 billion years of missing rock record.
Bedding planes, or planes separating adjacent sedimentary layers, also represent gaps in the rock record but on a much
smaller scale than an unconformity.

Relative Age Dating

Relative age dating is a way to use geometric relationships between rock bodies to determine the sequence of geologic
events in an area. Relative dating is different from absolute dating in which specific dates are assigned to geologic
events (we will discuss absolute dating techniques later).

Relative dating is based on the five principles of stratigraphy discussed above.

Historical Perspective on the Origin of Rocks: Werner's Concept of Neptunism

Abraham Werner (1749-1817), a German geologist, proposed that Earths crust originated in ocean water through the
process of precipitation. This idea became known as Neptunism, in reference to the Roman God of the sea.

Werner classified rocks into 4 categories, as shown in the diagram below:

Figure by RJR

1. Primitive rock (red) Granite and metamorphic rock were precipitated from oceans.

2. Transition rock (light brown) Next, fossil-rich sedimentary rocks were precipitated. These rocks are tilted due to
deposition on the non-horizontal surfaces of primitive rocks. This aspect of Werner's model was useful for explaining the
origin of tilted sedimentary rocks.

3. Secondary rock (dark brown) Flat lying sedimentary rocks were eventually precipitated. The secondary rocks were
thought to include interlayered basalts, which Werner thought formed by combustion of buried coal layers.

4. Tertiary (or alluvial) rock (yellow) Finally, after the ocean receded, recent erosion and deposition created a thin
veneer of overlying sediment.

Today we know that Werner's basic assumption that granite precipitated from seawater is incorrect. We also know that
basalt is not the product of coal combustion.
Nevertheless, Werner's concept of Neptunism was influential because:

1) Werener was right that some sedimentary rocks, such as limestones, do precipitate from ocean water.

2) Werner was not a catastrophist and did not need to make his interpretation of rock layers consistent with scriptual
teachings.

3) Werners relative age assignments represents an early attempt to determine Earth's sequential history.

Historical Perspective on the Origin of Rocks: Hutton's Concept of Plutonism

The Scottish geologist James Hutton (1726-1797) argued that granite and basalt by solidification within the earth (as
opposed to precipitating in from oceanwater). This idea is known as Plutonism, in reference to the God of the deep
underworld.

This concept of plutonism was supported by basalt melting/cooling experiments Sir James Hall conducted in 1792. These
experiments showed that the basalts form by the solidification of liquid magma.

Hutton viewed tilted strata as having been initially deposited horizontally, and then were subsequently deformed (tilted and
folded) by the forces of Earth's internal heat engine. He would argue that these forces gave rise to mountains.

Furthermore, he suggested that the mountains eroded to produce the sedimentary rocks we find in the rock record.

Hutton viewed the earth continually recycling itself with a balance between destruction and rejuvenation. Mountains are
created, eroded, and reformed.

Huttons ideas were not well received by people in the early 1800s because he was a poor writer, and because his
science was anti-catastrophic and did not support the scriptures.
material properties and geotechnical parameters

Manual on estimating soil properties for foundation design

This manual focuses on the needs of engineers involved in the geotechnical design of foundations for
transmission line structures. It also will serve as a useful reference for other geotechnical problems. In all
foundation design, it is necessary to know the pertinent parameters controlling the soil behavior. When it is
not feasible to measure the necessary soil parameters directly, estimates will have to be made from other
available data, such as the results of laboratory index tests and in-situ tests. Numerous correlations
between these types of tests and the necessary soil parameters exist in the literature, but they have not
been synthesized previously into readily form in a collective work. This manual summarizes the most
pertinent of these available correlations for estimating soil parameters. In many cases, the existing
correlations have been updated with new data, and new correlations have been developed where sufficient
data have been available. For each soil parameter, representative correlations commonly are presented in
chronological order to illustrate the evolutionary development of the particular correlation. The emphasis is
on relatively common laboratory and in-situ tests and correlations, including those tests that are seeing
increased use in practice.

The Standard Penetration Test recovers a highly disturbed sample, which is generally not suitable for tests
which measure properties of the in-situ soil structure, such as density, strength, and consolidation
characteristics. To overcome this limitation, the test is often run with a larger sampler with a slightly
different tip shape, so the disturbance of the sample is minimized, and testing of structural properties is
meaningful for all but soft soils. However, this results in blow counts which are not easily converted to SPT
N-values many conversions have been proposed, some of which depend on the type of soil sampled,
making reliance on blow counts with non-standard samplers problematic.

Standard Penetration Test blow counts do not represent a simple physical property of the soil, and thus
must be correlated to soil properties of interest, such as strength or density. There exist multiple
correlations, none of which are of very high quality.[2] Use of SPT data for direct prediction of liquefaction
potential suffers from roughness of correlations and from the need to "normalize" SPT data to account for
overburden pressure, sampling technique, and other factors.[3] Additionally, the method cannot collect
accurate data for weak soil layers for several reasons:

The results are limited to whole numbers for a specific driving interval, but with very low blow counts, the
granularity of the results, and the possibility of a zero result, makes handling the data cumbersome.[4]
In loose sands and very soft clays, the act of driving the sampler will significantly disturb the soil, including
by soil liquefaction of loose sands, giving results based on the disturbed soil properties rather than the
intact soil properties.
A variety of techniques have been proposed to compensate for the deficiencies of the standard penetration
test, including the Cone penetration test, in-situ vane shear tests, and shear wave velocity measurements.

Determination of geotechnical characteristic parameters

The article Determination of geotechnical characteristic parameters follows the base principles of the Eurocode.

The characteristic value of a geotechnical parameter shall be selected as a cautious estimate of the value affecting the occurrence of the
limit state.
[EC7- 2.4.5.2 2(P)]

Defining the geotechnical characteristic value means therefore to choose the geotechnical parameter that influences the behavior of the
soil in that particular limit state and adopt a value, or an estimate, in favour of safety.

If statistical methods are used, the characteristic value should be derived such that the calculated probability of a worse value governing
the occurrence of the limit state under consideration is not greater than 5%.

Assuming, for exmple, a characteristic value of 26 for the soil friction angle with a 5% fractile, means to
hypothesize that there is a probability of five percent that the real value of the friction angle is less that 26.
A cautios estimate of the geotechnical parameters is obtained through the following formula:
where, for a normal distribuiton, for compensation of resistances (slope stability analysis, bearing capacity of shallow foundations)

in absence of resistance compensation (plinths, bearing capacity of deep foundations)

In the case of resistances compensation the characteristic value of the geotechnical parameter is close to the mean value.

In absence of resistances compensation the characteristic value is close to the minimum value.

PRACTICAL CASE
It was performed a continous mechanic penetration test to a depth of 6.8 meters from ground level. The test was processed with the
software Dynamic Probing, obtaining the values for the angle of shearing resistance shown in the table below:
According to the indications reported in the literature, the angle of shearing resistance does not follow the normal statistical distribution, but
its tangent xi=tan(fi), so we transform the angles in tangent:
Mean value m(xi)= 0,547799;
Standard deviation s(xi)=0,009417

For compensated resistances

The value of the distributed parameter is calculated as:
xi=0,547799-1.645*0,009417/root(34)=0.54518, with the transformation in angle, arctg(0,54518) we obtain 28.6

For not compensated resistances

The characteristic value of the distributed parameter can be calculated as:
xi=0,547799-1.645*0,009417=0,532307, trasformed in angle arctg(0,532307)=28.0
In this case (large sample) the difference between the obtained values is minimal, but the difference may become substantial for small
samples (n<30) as in the majority of cases and for some geotechnical parameters, such as cohesion, which distributes its statistical value
according to a logarithmic law.

The software CVSOIL offers the possibility to analyze: numerous samples, dispersed samples, highly dispersed saples, linear
distribution, tangent, logarithmic etc.
CVSOIL simplifies the users work allowing to automatically acquire the data to estimate from Excel, memory or directly from the
software Static Probing and Dynamic Probing.

In this short video you can see how data is beeing processed in CVSOIL

The estimation of the characteristic value of the geotechnical parameters is very variable especially when the samples are highly
dispersed. CVSOIL has the statistical models that follow the principles of the Eurocodes and which allow to make an accurate estimate of
the characteristic value of the analyzed parameter even in the case of very dispersed samples.