G EOLOGY IN CIVIL ENGINEERING

(by Riza May S. Cabuga)

Geology comes from the Greek word ‘geo’ which means Earth and ‘logia’ meaning the study
of. It is a branch of physical science which deals with the study of the earth, including the
materials it’s made of, the physical and chemical changes that occur on its surface and its
interior, and the history of the planet and all its life forms. It also studies the ocean floor
and the interior of the earth.

HISTORY OF GEOLOGY
Geology has been an interest to humans as far back as ancient Greece in 4 th century.
Aristotle was one of the first people to make observations about the Earth. This was also
the time that scientists and philosophers noted a difference between rocks and minerals.
The Romans became very adaptive at mining certain rock for use in building their empire,
especially marble.

In the 17th century, fossils were being used as a way to understand what happened
to the earth over time. In the 18th century, scientists started focusing on minerals and
mineral ores since mining was an important part of global economies. During the said
century, two main theories came forward explaining some of the physical features of the
earth. One theory believed that all rocks were deposited by the ocean during flooding
events. The second theory believed that some rocks were formed through heat or fire. The
debate continued into the 19th century until James Hutton who was known as the father of
modern Geology proved that some rocks were formed by volcanic processes (heat and fire)
and others were formed by sedimentation. Hutton also explained that all the processes we
see going on today are the same processes that happened in the geologic past and that they
occurred very slowly. In other words, the erosion that occurs in our mountains today is the
same process that eroded the mountains in the past. This theory is known as
uniformitarianism, which simply stated that ‘the present is the key to the past’.

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SCOPE OF GEOLOGY IN CIVIL ENGINEERING
It focuses on applying geological knowledge for a safe, stable, and economic design
and construction of civil engineering projects.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GEOLGY AND CIVIL ENGINEERING

For civil engineering projects to be successful, the engineers must examine the land
well upon which the project rests. Most civil engineering projects involve some excavation
of soil and rocks or involve loading the earth by building on it. In some cases, the excavated
rocks maybe used as construction materials and can form a major part of the finished
product. The safety of the project may depend critically on the geological conditions where
the construction takes place. Geology studies the land to whether it is stable enough to
support the proposed project. They also study the water patterns to determine if the
particular site is prone to flooding. It also involves the investigation of the suitability and
characteristics of sites as they affect the design and construction of civil engineering works
and the security of the neighboring structures.

IMPORTANCE OF GEOLOGY IN CIVIL ENGINEERING

Geology is important in civil engineering because all works performed by civil
engineers involve earth and its features. Construction takes place either at the surface or
below the surface. Hence, geology has an important influence on most construction
operations since it helps determine their nature, form, and cost.

URL SOURCES:
https://membean.com/wrotds/ge-earth
http://www.spcollege.co.in/lectures/636189092199480262.pdf
https://civilengineeringbible.com/article.php?i=36
https://www.brainkart.com/article/Scope-Of-Geology-In-Civil-Engineering_3762/
https://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-geology-definition-history-facts-topics.html
https://www.omicsonline.org/conferences-list/geology-and-civil-engineering

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B RANCHES OF GEOLOGY
(by Meramolin A. Babor)

a. Mineralogy - the study of minerals.

Minerals - naturally occurring substances, mostly inorganic, that are characterized

by a definite chemical composition and a definite atomic structure.

b. Petrology - the study of rocks.

Rock - a naturally formed, consolidated material composed of grains of one or more

minerals.

Igneous - formed by solidifying from a molten magma.

Metamorphic - altered preexisting rocks.

Sedimentary - accumulated and cemented fragments of preexisting rocks.

c. Geomorphology - study of landforms, its processes, form and sediments at the

surface of the earth.

Weathering - process that cause the breakdown of rocks, either to form new
minerals or to form small particles of rocks.

Physical Weathering - breaking down of rocks into smaller fragments.

Chemical Weathering - chemical alteration or decomposition of rocks and minerals.

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 d. Geodynamics - concerned with the forces and processes of the earth's interior,
particularly their effect on the crust and lithosphere.

*Earthquake *Coastal Land Forms *Tsunami *Landslides

e. Engineering Geology - application of geological knowledge in the field of

engineering, for execution of safe, stable and economic constructions.

Geological Map

Dam - a solid barrier constructed at a suitable location across a river valley.

Bridge - a structure spanning a river or a depression providing communication

across it.

f. Hydrology - study of water on and beneath the earth's surface.

*Water Cycle *Groundwater *Aquifer

g. Rock Mechanics - study of the mechanical behavior of rocks, especially its strength,
elasticity, permeability, porosity, density, and reaction to stress

URL SOURCES:
https://doc-00-bg-docs.googleusercontent.com/docs/securesc/jbscj408i28cojifukvaqat5m2v02b30/
sd2dvb3b6qqflfl87915cokgkj86hnd7/1581555600000/00214575494328993376/12717739030844875459/
0B4iSIbs1zY0-WkVNbmNiT2dFVXM?e=download&authuser=0
https://www.geomorphology.org.uk/what-geomorphology-0
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/geodynamics
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/rock-mechanics

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E ARTH’S STRUCTURE AND COMPOSITION
(by Paula R. Abraham)

DIVISION BASED ON COMPOSITION

 The Crust is the earth’s outer surface; a cold, thin, brittle outer shell made of rock.

There are two types of crust with its own distinctive physical and chemical properties.

It is made up of several elements: oxygen, silicon, aluminum, iron, calcium, sodium,

potassium, and magnesium. Oceanic Crust is composed of magma that erupts on the

seafloor to create basalt lava flows or cools deeper down to create the intrusive

igneous rock gabbro. Continental Crust is made up of many different types of igneous,

metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks. The lithosphere is the outermost mechanical

layer, which behaves as a brittle or rigid solid.

 The Mantle is made of solid rock; and is hot. Scientists know that the mantle is made or

rock based on evidence from seismic waves, heart flow, and meteorites. In terms of

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 constituent elements, the mantle is made up of oxygen, silicon and magnesium. Heat

flows in two different ways within the earth: conduction and convention.

 The Core is the earth’s center. Scientists know that it is made up of metal for some

reasons. The density of the earth’s surface layers is much less than the overall density

of the planet, as calculated from the planet’s rotation. Calculations indicate that the

core is made up of 85% iron metal with nickel making up much of the remaining 15%.

URL SOURCES:
“Essentials of Geology” (7th Ed., Prentice Hall, 2000) by Fredrick K. Lutgens and Edward J.
Tarbuck

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/geophysical/chapter/the-composition-and-structure-of-the-
earth/ date retrieved: Feb 16, 2020

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 C ONTINENTAL DRIFT THEORY
(by Mark Kenneth E. Mayuga)

Continental drift was a theory that explained how continents shift position on
Earth's surface. Set forth in 1912 by Alfred Wegener, a geophysicist and meteorologist,
continental drift also explained why look-alike animal and plant fossils, and similar rock
formations, are found on different continents.

Wegener thought all the continents were once joined together in an "Urkontinent"
before breaking up and drifting to their current positions. But geologists soundly
denounced Wegener's theory of continental drift after he published the details in a 1915
book called "The Origin of Continents and Oceans." Part of the opposition was because
Wegener didn't have a good model to explain how the continents moved apart.
Though most of Wegener's observations about fossils and rocks were correct, he was
outlandishly wrong on a couple of key points. For instance, Wegener thought
the continents might have plowed through the ocean crust like icebreakers smashing
through ice.
"There's an irony that the key objection to continent drift was that there is no mechanism,
and plate tectonics was accepted without a mechanism," to move the continents, said
Henry Frankel, an emeritus professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and author
of the four volume "The Continental Drift Controversy" (Cambridge University Press,
2012).
Although Wegener's "continental drift" theory was discarded, it did introduce the
idea of moving continents to geoscience. And decades later, scientists would confirm some
of Wegener's ideas, such as the past existence of a supercontinent joining all the world's
landmasses as one. Pangaea was a supercontinent that formed roughly 200 to 250 million
years ago, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and was responsible for the fossil
and rock clues that led Wegener to his theory.

EVOLVING THEORIES

When Wegener proposed continental drift, many geologists were contractionists.

They thought Earth's incredible mountains were created because our planet was cooling
and shrinking since its formation, Frankel said. And to account for the identical fossils
discovered on continents such as South America and Africa, scientists invoked ancient land
bridges, now vanished beneath the sea. Researchers argued over the land bridges right up
until the plate tectonics theory was developed, Frankel said. For instance, as geophysicists
began to realize that continental rocks were too light to sink down to the ocean floor,

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prominent paleontologists instead suggested that the similarities between fossils had been
overestimated, Frankel said.

Before the constriction theory, many thought that the world's formations were caused
by a worldwide flood. This theory is called catastrophism, according to the USGS.

The theory of continental drift reconciled similar fossil plants and animals now found
on widely separated continents. Gondwana is shown here. 

EVIDENCE FOR CONTINENTAL DRIFT

A map of the continents inspired Wegener's quest to explain Earth's geologic history.
Trained as a meteorologist, he was intrigued by the interlocking fit of Africa's and South
America's shorelines. Wegener then assembled an impressive amount of evidence to show
that Earth's continents were once connected in a single supercontinent.

Wegener knew that fossil plants and animals such as mesosaurs, a freshwater reptile
found only South America and Africa during the Permian period, could be found on many
continents. He also matched up rocks on either side of the Atlantic Ocean like puzzle pieces.
For example, the Appalachian Mountains (United States) and Caledonian Mountains
(Scotland) fit together, as do the Karroo strata in South Africa and Santa Catarina rocks in
Brazil.
In fact, plates moving together created the highest mountains in the world, the Himalayans,
and the mountains are still growing due to the plates pushing together, even now.

URL SOURCES:
httpshttps://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.livescience.com/amp/37529-
continental-
drift.html&ved=2ahUKEwj27Z2O8NTnAhWkGqYKHTScBEwQFjAhegQIBBAB&usg=AOvVaw3eUT03zuE
Ep-USnm2Aaqx5&ampcf=1

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 P LATE TECTONICS
(by Earl Russell P. Jumamil)

WHAT IS PLATE TECTONICS?

From the deepest ocean trench to the tallest mountain, plate tectonics explains the
features and movement of Earth's surface in the present and the past. Plate tectonics is the
theory that Earth's outer shell is divided into several plates that glide over the mantle, the
rocky inner layer above the core. The plates act like a hard and rigid shell compared
to Earth's mantle. This strong outer layer is called the lithosphere, which is 100 km (60
miles) thick, according to Encyclopedia Britannica. The lithosphere includes the crust and
outer part of the mantle. Below the lithosphere is the asthenosphere, which is malleable or
partially malleable, allowing the lithosphere to move around. How it moves around is an
evolving idea.

HISTORY
Developed from the 1950s through the 1970s, plate tectonics is the modern version
of continental drift, a theory first proposed by scientist Alfred Wegener in 1912. Wegener
didn't have an explanation for how continents could move around the planet, but
researchers do now. Plate tectonics is the unifying theory of geology, said Nicholas van der
Elst, a seismologist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in
Palisades, New York.
"Before plate tectonics, people had to come up with explanations of the geologic
features in their region that were unique to that particular region," Van der Elst said. "Plate
tectonics unified all these descriptions and said that you should be able to describe all
geologic features as though driven by the relative motion of these tectonic plates."

HOW MANY PLATES ARE THERE?

There are nine major plates, according to World Atlas. These plates are named after
the landforms found on them. The nine major plates are North American, Pacific, Eurasian,

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African, Indo-Australian, Australian, Indian, South American and Antarctic. The largest
plate is the Pacific Plate at 39,768,522 square miles (103,000,000 square kilometers). Most
of it is located under the ocean. It is moving northwest at a speed of around 2.75 inches (7
cm) per year. There are also many smaller plates throughout the world. 

HOW PLATE TECTONICS WORKS

The driving force behind plate tectonics is convection in the mantle. Hot material near
the Earth's core rises and colder mantle rock sinks. "It's kind of like a pot boiling on a
stove," Van der Elst said. The convection drive plates tectonics through a combination of
pushing and spreading apart at mid-ocean ridges and pulling and sinking downward at
subduction zones, researchers think. Scientists continue to study and debate the
mechanisms that move the plates.
Mid-ocean ridges are gaps between tectonic plates that mantle the Earth like seams on
a baseball. Hot magma wells up at the ridges, forming new ocean crust and shoving the
plates apart. At subduction zones, two tectonic plates meet and one slides beneath the
other back into the mantle, the layer underneath the crust. The cold, sinking plate pulls the
crust behind downward. Many spectacular volcanoes are found along subduction zones,
such as the "Ring of Fire" that surrounds the Pacific Ocean.

PLATE BOUNDARIES
Subduction zones, or convergent margins, are one of the three types of plate boundaries.
The others are divergent and transform margins. At a divergent margin, two plates are
spreading apart, as at seafloor-spreading ridges or continental rift zones such as the East
Africa Rift.
Transform margins mark slip-sliding plates, such as California's San Andreas Fault, where
the North America and Pacific plates grind past each other with a mostly horizontal
motion. 

RECONSTRUCTING THE PAST

While the Earth is 4.54 billion years old, because oceanic crust is constantly recycled
at subduction zones, the oldest seafloor is only about 200 million years old. The oldest

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ocean rocks are found in the northwestern Pacific Ocean and the eastern Mediterranean
Sea. Fragments of continental crust are much
older, with large chunks at least 3.8 billion
years found in Greenland.
With clues left behind in rocks and
fossils, geoscientists can reconstruct the past
history of Earth's continents. Most
researchers think modern plate tectonics
began about 3 billion years ago, based on
ancient magmas and minerals preserved in
rocks from that period. Some believe it could
have started a years. “We don't really know
when plate tectonics as it looks today got
started, but we do know that we have
continental crust that was likely scraped off a
down-going slab [a tectonic plate in a
subduction zone] that is 3.8 billion years old,"
Van der Elst said. "We could guess that means
plate tectonics was operating, but it might
have looked very different from today."
As the continents jostle around the
Earth, they occasionally come together to
form giant supercontinents, a single
landmass. One of the earliest big
supercontinents, called Rodinia, assembled
about 1 billion years ago. Its breakup is
linked to a global glaciation called Snowball
Earth.
A more recent supercontinent
called Pangaea formed about 300 million
years ago. Africa, South America, North America and Europe nestled closely together,

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leaving a characteristic pattern of fossils and rocks for
geologists to decipher once Pangaea broke apart. The
puzzle pieces left behind by Pangaea, from fossils to the
matching shorelines along the Atlantic Ocean, provided
the first hints that the Earth's continents move.
Plates bumping into each other can also cause
mountain ranges. For example, India and Asia came
together about 55 million years ago, which created the
Himalaya Mountains, according to Geographic. In the 20th
century, researchers realized that the Earth's crust is not
one piece, but is made up of many huge tectonic plates
upon which the continents ride. 

URL SOURCES:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://
www.livescience.com/amp/37706-what-is-plate-
tectonics.html&ved=2ahUKEwjJ2qzy99TnAhUoyosBHdR6A3AQFjAfegQIAhAB&usg=AOvVaw1ENaGrt2
GoO-vdpA_TWWIn&ampcf=1

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 E ARTH’S PROCESSES/GEOLOGICAL PROCESSES
(by Nova Berlit Suerte)

 Geological processes are dynamic processes at work in the earth's landforms and
surfaces. The mechanisms involved, weathering, erosion, and plate tectonics,
combine processes that are in some respects destructive and in others constructive.

I. PLATE TECTONICS

 a theory in geology that the lithosphere of the earth is divided into a small number
of plates which float on and travel independently over the mantle and much of the
earth's seismic activity occurs at the boundaries of these plates
 Scientists believe that about 250 million years ago, the plates were positioned so
that all plates were joined together to form a super continent called Pangaea. They
also thought that about 200 million years ago, the super continent Pangaea
separated into 2 large continents called Laurasia and Gondwanaland. Over periods
of millions of years the plates continued to collide and separate to eventually form
seven continents.

II. EROSION

 Erosion is a natural process which is usually made by rock and soil being loosened
from the earth's surface at one location and moved to another. Erosion changes the
landscape by wearing down mountains, filling in valleys, and making rivers appear
and disappear. It is usually a slow and gradual process that occurs over thousands
or millions of years. But erosion can be speeded up by such human activities as
farming and mining.

 WHAT CAUSES EROSION?

There are many different forces in nature that cause erosion. Depending on the type

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 of force, erosion can happen quickly or take thousands of years. The three main
forces that cause erosion are water, wind, and ice.

EROSION CAUSED BY WATER

ways that water causes erosion:

 Rainfall
 Rivers
 Waves
 Floods

EROSION BY WIND
Wind is a major type of erosion, especially in dry areas. Wind can erode by picking
up and carrying loose particles and dust away (called deflation). It can also erode
when these flying particles strike the land and break off more particles (called
abrasion).

EROSION BY GLACIERS
Glaciers are giant rivers of ice that slowly move carving out valleys and shaping
mountains.

III. WEATHERING

The process that takes place as rocks, and other parts of the geosphere, are broken down
into smaller pieces

WHAT CAUSES WEATHERING?

Water, Air, Chemicals, Plants and Animals

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TYPES OF WEATHERING

MECHANICAL WEATHERING

 The process of breaking bit rocks into little ones

Causes: frost, ice, plant roots, running water and sun’s heat

CHEMICAL WEATHERING

 Involves changes that some substances can cause in the surface of the rock that
make it change shape, or color

Causes: carbon dioxide, oxygen and acids

URL SOURCES:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-Iak3Wvh9c
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/plate%20tectonics
http://www.edu.pe.ca/southernkings/processes.htm
https://www.ducksters.com/science/earth_science/erosion.php

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W ORKS OF RIVERS, WIND AND SEA AND THEIR
ENGINEERING IMPORTANCE (by Marielle G. Asanuddin)

WORKS OF RIVERS
BASIC KNOWLEDGE ON RIVERS:
 River, as defined by the National Geographic Society, is a large, natural stream of
flowing water.
 The beginning of the river is called source or headwaters.
 On the other hand, mouth refers to the end of the river.
 The movement of water in a river is called current. The current is usually strongest
near the river’s source.
 The energy of flowing river water comes from the pull of gravity. The steeper the
slope of a river, the faster the water moves and the more energy it has.

FEATURES MADE BY RIVERS:

 Rivers form meanders or
large bends as they enter
a plain and start to twist
and turn. Continuous
erosion and deposition
can be observed along the
sides of the meanders
thus, the ends of the
meander loop to come
closer and closer.
 An ox-bow lake is formed
as the meander loop cuts
off from the river and forms a cut-off lake.

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  Overflowing of the riverbanks cannot be avoided. As a result, the neighboring areas
get flooded. The flooding deposits layers of fine soil and other materials called
sediments along its banks. Floodplain, a flat fertile landform, is created.
 Levees refer to the raised banks.
 Rivers also approaches the sea. The
speed of the flowing water decreases
and the river begins to break up into
a number of streams called
distributaries.
 Each distributary forms a mouth. The
collection of sediments from all the
mouths forms a delta.

GEOLOGICAL WORK BY RIVERS:

 The geological work is divided into three, namely: erosion, transport, and
deposition.
 The erosional work carves and shapes the landscape through which they flow.
 A river may erode in 4 ways:
1. ABRASION/CORROSION
-- The loads carried by the river water slowly wear away the river’s
bed and sides.
2. ATTRITION
-- The loads get broken into smaller pieces.
3. HYRDAULIC ACTION
-- The turbulence of loosens fragments of rocks and sweeps them
away.
4. SOLUTION
-- Certain minerals in rocks like limestone are dissolved in water.
These rocks are then eroded.
 Transportation works in 4 ways:
1. TRACTION
-- Larger and heavier rocks or gravels are dragged or rolled along the
bed.
2. SALTATION

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 -- Smaller and lighter rock fragments and sand hop and bounce
along the river bed.
3. SUSPENSION
-- Some of the load like silt and clay (fine-grained) float.
4. SOLUTION
-- Some minerals are transported in dissolved form.
 A river deposits its load when there’s a decrease in its volume and speed.
 The river’s volume decreases under the following circumstances:
** dry season
** dry region with high evaporation
** presence of permeable rocks
** receding with flood waters
 The river’s speed decreases when:
** It enters a lake.
** It enters a calm sea.
** It enters a gently sloping plain.

WORKS OF WIND
 The chief work of the wind is the movement of loose particles of soil and rock.
 Wind becomes an important agent of erosion through the process of deflation,
which means to blow away.
 Deflation is most conspicuous in the dry deserts of the world.
 Winds erode the lower section of mushroom rocks found in deserts than the upper
section. Thus, such rocks have narrower base and wider tops.
 The most common of all wind deposits are dunes, which are hills of windblown soil.
These are formed when there is a supply of dry, unprotected soil or sand that is
move by strong winds and gets deposited in low hill-like structures.
 When the grains of sand are very fine and light, the wind carries it to long distances.
When deposited in large areas, it is called loess.

Page | 18
 The wind also abrades solid rock by means of the rock particles it carries. Various
landforms such as natural bridges, rock pinnacles and even large desert basins have
been attributed to abrasion by wind-driven sand.

WORKS OF SEAS
 Seas give rise to coastal landforms through the movement of its waves that erodes
and deposits sediments.
 The hard rocks in a coastline erode more slowly than the soft rocks.
 The
hard
rock
that’s
not

eroded juts out to the sea and forms a headland.

 The spaces between the hard rock are known as bays.
 As sea waves continuously strike at the rocks, cracks develop.
 Over the time, these cracks become larger and wider thus, hollow like caves are
formed on the rocks and are called sea caves.
 If the caves erode right through a headland or if only the roof of the cave remains,
sea arches are formed.
 Further erosion breaks the roof and walls of the arches and formed sea stacks.
 Sea stacks can eventually be eroded down to a stump.

Page | 19
  Sea cliffs refer to steep rocky coast rising almost vertically above sea water.
 Sea waves also deposit sediments along the shores forming beaches.

ENGINEERING IMPORTANCE
 Learning the geological works of the geological agents, river, wind, and sea allows
engineers to be more confident regarding the location, design, construction,
operation, and maintenance of engineering structures for certain purposes.
 These help engineers to come up with structures of defense against the devastation
attributed to either erosion or weathering.
 Some common structures invented are breakwater, seawalls, groynes, revetments,
dams, and wave attenuator.

URL SOURCES:
https://www.slideshare.net/gauravhtandon1/engineering-geology
http://ncert.nic.in/textbook/pdf/gess203.pdf
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/
319165537_SCOPE_OF_STUDYING_ENGINEERING_GEOLOGY
https://www.slideshare.net/noelhogan/the-work-of-the-sea-37149087
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/river/
http://www.umsl.edu/~naumannj/Geography%20PowerPoint%20Slides/Landforms/landforming
%20page/The%20Work%20of%20Rivers.ppt

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 E ARTHQUAKE: ORIGIN, OCCURRENCE AND
MODE OF OCCURRENCE (by Franchette Colleen P. Jamin)

WHAT IS AN EARTHQUAKE?
An earthquake is what happens when two blocks of the earth suddenly slip past one
another. The surface where they slip is called the fault or fault plane. The location below the
earth’s surface where the earthquake starts is called the hypocenter, and the location
directly above it on the surface of the earth is called the epicenter.

There are four different types of earthquakes: Tectonic, volcanic, collapse and explosion. A
tectonic earthquake is one that occurs when the earth's crust breaks due to geological
forces on rocks and adjoining plates that cause physical and chemical changes. A volcanic
earthquake is any earthquake that results from tectonic forces which occur in conjunction
with volcanic activity. A collapse earthquake are small earthquakes in underground caverns
and mines that are caused by seismic waves produced from the explosion of rock on the

Page | 21
surface. An explosion earthquake is an earthquake that is the result of the detonation of a
nuclear and/or chemical device.

WHAT CAUSES EARTHQUAKES AND WHERE DO THEY HAPPEN?

The crust and the top of the mantle make up a thin skin on the surface of our planet. But
this skin is not all in one piece – it is made up of many pieces like a puzzle covering the
surface of the earth. These puzzle pieces keep slowly moving around, sliding past one
another and bumping into each other. We call these puzzle pieces tectonic plates, and the
edges of the plates are called the plate boundaries. The plate boundaries are made up of
many faults, and most of the earthquakes around the world occur on these faults
particularly around the Pacific Rim. Since the edges of the plates are rough, they get stuck
while the rest of the plate keeps moving. The energy radiates outward from the fault in all
directions in the form of seismic waves like ripples on a pond. The seismic waves shake the
earth as they move through it, and when the waves reach the earth’s surface, they shake the
ground and anything on it.

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HOW DO SCIENTISTS MEASURE THE SIZE OF EARTHQUAKES?

They use the seismogram recordings made on the seismographs at the surface of the earth
to determine how large the earthquake was. A short wiggly line that doesn’t wiggle very
much means a small earthquake, and a long wiggly line that wiggles a lot means a large
earthquake. The length of the wiggle depends on the size of the fault, and the size of the
wiggle depends on the amount of slip.

The size of the earthquake is called its magnitude. There is one magnitude for each
earthquake. Scientists also talk about the intensity of shaking from an earthquake, and this
varies depending on where you are during the earthquake.

HOW CAN SCIENTISTS TELL WHERE THE EARTHQUAKE HAPPENED?

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By looking at the amount of time between the P and S wave on a seismogram recorded on a
seismograph, scientists can tell how far away the earthquake was from that location.
However, they can’t tell in what direction from the seismograph the earthquake was, only
how far away it was. If they draw a circle on a map around the station where the radius of
the circle is the determined distance to the earthquake, they know the earthquake lies
somewhere on the circle.

Scientists then use a method called triangulation to determine exactly where the
earthquake was. It is called triangulation because a triangle has three sides, and it takes
three seismographs to locate an earthquake. If you draw a circle on a map around three
different seismographs where the radius of each is the distance from that station to the
earthquake, the intersection of those three circles is the epicenter.

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URL SOURCES:
https://www.usgs.gov/natural-hazards/earthquake-hazards/science/science-earthquakes?qt-
science_center_objects=0#qt-science_center_objects

https://people.uwec.edu/jolhm/EH/Toivonen/types.htm

G ROUNDWATER AND ITS IMPORTANCE IN

CIVIL ENGINEERING (by Angel Faith De Luna)

WHAT IS GROUNDWATER?

Groundwater is considered as the very important natural resource in arid, semi arid and
dry regions.

The area where water fills the aquifer is called the saturated zone (or saturation zone). The
top of this zone is called the water table. The water table may be located only a foot below
the ground’s surface or it can sit hundreds of feet down.

SOURCES OF GROUNDWATER

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1. Meteoric Water- it is the water derived from precipitation (rain or snow). And almost entire
water obtained from groundwater supplies belong to this category.

2. Connote water- it is the water present in the rocks right from the time of their deposition in
aqueous environment. It is saline in nature.

3. Juvenile water- it is also called magmatic water and is of only theoretical importance. Some hot
springs and geysers are clearly derived from juvenile water.

DISTRIBUTION OF GROUNDWATER

1. Soil water-forms a thin layer confined to the near surface depth of the land.

2. Intermediate vadosa zone- occurs immediately below the zone of soil water

3. Zone of capillary- it is present only in soil and rocks of fine particles size underlying the vadosa
zone.

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FORMS OF SUBSURFACE WATER

1. Saturated zone- it is also known as

groundwater zone in which all the pores of
the soil are filled with water

2. Aeration zone- in this zone, the soil pores

are only partially saturated with water.

SATURATED FORMATIONS

1. Aquifer- it is typically made up of gravel, sand, sandstone, or fractured

rock, like limestone. Water can move through these materials because
they have large connected spaces that make them permeable. The speed
at which groundwater flows depends on the size of the spaces in the soil
or rock and how well the spaces are connected.

Two types

a. Unconfined Aquifer

b. Confined

2. Aquitard- a formation through which only seepage is possible and thus the yield is insignificant
compared to aquifer.

3. Aquiclude- a geological formation which is essentially impermeable to the flow of water.

4. Aquifuge- a geological formation which neither porous nor permeable.

WATER TABLE

A water table is the free water surface in an unconfined aquifer indicating the level of the
water table at that point.

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 Fluctuations in the water level in a dug well during various seasons of the year, lowering the
groundwater table in a region due to heavy pumping of the wells and the rise in the water in an
irrigated area with poor drainage.

IMPORTANCE OF GROUNDWATER IN CIVIL ENGINEERING

Civil-engineering construction works often have a significant impact on groundwater

conditions. Such an impact can range from the derogation of water sources by dewatering works, to
the creation of barriers and pathways for groundwater flow formed by foundations or ground-
improvement processes. In some cases, not all these impacts are identified early enough during the
planning and design process. Mostly, full range of potential groundwater impacts which can result
from construction activities.

URL SOURCES:
https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/what-groundwater?qt-news_science_products=0#qt-news_science_products
http://www.clean-water-for-laymen.com/groundwater-sources.html
https://www.slideshare.net/gauravhtandon1/ground-water-unitv
https://www.slideshare.net/wskirkham/groundwater-2346150
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/230172092_Potential_groundwater_impacts_from_civil-
engineering_works

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