Earth Processes for Engineering Notes

Lecture 2: Climate Systems

Climate and Buildings
Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning(HVAC)
- Significant Energy Usage
-Climate Influences HVAC

What is climate and what is weather

Weather is what happens on a particular day

Climate is the statistical behavior of weather over a long period. Eg, average of maximum
temperature in February
-Average conditions
-Variability around the average

Earth’s atmospheric composition

- 78% Nitrogen, 20.9% Oxygen and 0.9% Argon
- Water vapor is variable 0-4%

Radiative Transfer processes

-Ozone absorbs UV in the Stratosphere
- H2O, CO2, CH4, N2O, O3 are trace gases that are also greenhouse gases

Atmospheric gases are in a continual state of flux

Nitrogen Cycle:
N removed from the atmosphere
-Natural fixation removes N2 from the atmosphere via bacteria and lightening providing
nutrients to soils/water
- artificial fertilizers (Haber-Bosch process uses N2 from air
N returned to the atmosphere
-via denitrifying bacteria
- Emissions of N2O from combustion processes (Eg, Engine)

Oxygen
-Photosynthesis and respiration
-other oxidation processes

Ozone
- a pollutant at the surface and in the Troposphere
- Important in the Stratosphere (protects Earth against UV radiation)
The Structure of the atmosphere
Layers Air Molecules
Thermosphere(0.1% of the atmosphere) Less
Mesosphere((0.1% of the atmosphere)
Stratosphere (19.9% of the atmosphere/stable temperature
profile/Ozone layer)
Troposphere ( 80% of the atmosphere/all weather occurs) More

The troposphere
-nearly all weather occurs in this layer
- 8-16 km thick
-thickest over the equator due to maximal solar heating
- tropopause is -56.5 degree on average
-substantial vertical motions mix air across it
-temperature ‘lapses’ from a maximum at the surface by -6.5 degree/1000m
- often called the Environmental lapse rate

Pattern of Solar Heating

Solar heating is most intense at the equator
-Given amount of solar radiation spread over a larger area at the Poles

Atmospheric Motions
Solar heating is the ultimate source of energy
-Movement of heat from Equator to Poles by the Atmosphere and oceans

Air that is warmer than the surrounding air tends to rise

-Buoyancy effects are critical - depend on density
-Equation of State
P = pressure
R = specific gas constant
T = temperature
ρ = Density
-As temperature increases, density decreases for a given temperature

Coriolis Effect

- Air and water (in ocean) are deflected relative to the direction of motion
 to the left in the southern hemisphere
 to the right in the northern hemisphere
-The magnitude of the effect is largest at the poles and zero at the Equator
-The Coriolis Effect only affects large scale flows over long periods of time

Vertical global atmospheric circulation cells (The General Circulation)

Hadley Cell (Driven by maximum solar heating at the equator)

1. warm air rising at the equator/Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone to upper level
troposphere. The inter-tropical convergence zone is an area of generally rising air, which
cools as it rises leading to high rainfall
2. moves poleward, cools and descend around 30 degree of latitude north and south to
form subtropical high pressure ridge(STHPR)
3. descending air leads to low rainfall, high pressure
4. STHPR surface air flow diverges towards the equator and the pole
5. air flow towards the pole becomes part of the mid-latitude westerlies

Ferrel Cell (Mixing cell between thermally driven Hadley & Polar cells)
1. Surface warm air from the STHPR moves poleward and mixed with surface cold air from
the polar cell moving toward the equator
2. At the polar front warm air rises above the cool air in frontal weather systems
3. High altitude flow is weakly towards the equator in the ferrel cell

Polar Cell
1. Descending cold air at the Poles
2. Surface air flows away from the pole forming the polar easterlies
3. High altitude air moves towards the poles

Inter-tropical convergent zone

- at the equatorial region, air is rising which is associated with low pressure at the
surface，high rainfall
Subtropical High pressure ridge
- air descends from the atmosphere towards the surface, high pressure, low rainfall

Sub-Antarctic trough
Air is rising, therefore low pressure, high rainfall

Lecture 3

Comparison of 3 Cell model and reality

- General patterns of surface winds and pressure match the model BUT
- seasons move the pattern(north -> South -> North)
-land distribution affects the pattern
-ocean circulation affects the pattern

Local Phenomena Influences local climate

- land-sea interactions (sea & land breezes)
- Topography (rain shadow)
- Land Cover (vegetation, bare soil, water)

Surface Ocean Currents

- driven by global wind patterns and heating/cooling density(buoyancy changes)
- current transport heat from the Equator to the Poles
-influenced by Coriolis

Sources of Climate Variability

- Atmosphere Fluctuations
- Ocean Fluctuations
- Solar Fluctuations
- Volcanos

Lecture 4 Rainfall Processes

Humidity - a measure of water vapor content in the atmosphere

Vapor pressure, e - the partial pressure of water vapor in the atmosphere
Dew-point temperature, T dew - temperature at which dew will form (liquid water droplets
start to form as what vapor condenses to the liquid phase)
Relative Humidity = e/esat, esat is the partial pressure of water vapor for a saturated
atmosphere

Water Phases
Vapor Pressure & Relative Humidity

The parcel of air will

not go through
condensation because
it can accept more
water vapor which
means it has not
reached 100%
humidity.

Cloud Formation
Precipitation - warm clouds (T > 0 degree)
- small droplets are held aloft by up-flowing air
- water droplets tend to collide with each other and coalesce into larger droplets

If gravity > updrafts, droplets fall to the ground as rain

Precipitation - cold clouds (T < 0 degree)

-ice crystals and supercooled liquid water coexist

- equilibrium favors ice crystals but ice formation is slow unless T< 0 degree
- ice crystals grow, forming snow flakes, at the expense of liquid water droplets
- Depending on T, they
- reach the ground as snow
- melt and fall as rain

4 types of uplifts
- Convection (Thunderstorms)
 Differential Heating of the surface, creates local instability
 condensation releases latent heat which provides energy to drive the thunderstorm
- Convergence
 Opposing air masse meet (converge)
- similar temperatures
- only place to go is up
- low pressure system forms
 Air rises and cool
- often forming clouds and precipitation
-Frontal Lifting
 a front is the boundary between warm and cool
bodies of air
 Cold fronts
- The boundary moves toward the warm air
 - temperatures cooler as front passes

 Warm fronts
- The boundary moves toward the cold air
- Temperature becomes warmer as front passes

-Orographic Uplift
 Wind forced air to rise over hills and mountains
 As air rises, it cools and once it reaches dew
point temperature, condensations occurs and
water droplets form -> precipitation
 results in high precipitation in mountainous
areas
- wet on the windward side
- rain shadow on the leeward side

Proccess of rainfall
- As air rises, it cools and once it reaches dew point temperature, condensations
occurs , water vapor condenses to form water droplets -> precipitation

What leads to cooling?

As air rises,
-pressure drops
-the air expands
-it cools
-condensation and precipitation may then follow, depending on humidity and temperature

Adiabatic processes - a parcel of air rises of falls without exchanging energy(mixing) with
surrounding air
Adiabatic Cooling (when a parcel of air rises) - reduced pressure -> expansion -> cooling
Adiabatic Heating (when a parcel of air descends) - increased pressure -> contraction ->
heating
Adiabatic Cooling
-Two Lapse rates (decrease in T with altitude)
-Unsaturated air (T>Tdew)
 Dry adiabatic rate (DALR) = -0.98 °C/100m
-Saturated air (T<Tdew)
 Wet adiabatic rate(WALR) = -0.5°C/100m

Why is the wet adiabatic lapse rate smaller than the dry?
-phase changes involve release or absorption of energy – latent heat
- During condensation latent heat is released and transferred to the air
- this reduces the rate of cooling compared with
the dry adiabatic rate

Environmental Lapse Rate (can be measured by weather balloon)

The actual vertical temperature profile is influenced by
-vertical mixing of air
-surface temperature
-weather system (warm/cold air, humidity, wind velocity)

Hydrostatic stability (Stable)

The parcel of air has a lower
temperature than the
surrounding air
(Environmental Lapse rate).
The colder it gets, the denser
and less buoyant it becomes.
Thus, it will not keep rising.
 Hydrostatic Stability (Unstable)

The parcel of air has a higher

temperature than the
surrounding air
(Environmental Lapse rate).
The cooler it gets, the less
dense and more buoyant it
comes. Thus, it will keep
rising. (convection)

Lecture 5 Characterizing Rainfall

Measurement of Precipitation - Rain Gauges

- Rain gauges collect rain (measure volume & convert to depth)
- Standard rain gauges in Australia, are 203mm diameter
- Types of rain gauges (collector, tipping bucket)

Interpretation of Rainfall measurements

Eg, Rainfall of 10mm
- It is the accumulation of an equivalent depth of water

RADAR = Radio Detection And Ranging

- a radio pulse is sent out
- echos from rain drops recorded
- reflectivity image

Mean Annual Rainfall: The average of the annual rainfall from a number of years.
Inter-annual variability: the variability of the annual rainfall around the mean from a
number of years
Monthly rainfall - the total rainfall for a particular month of a particular year
Mean monthly rainfall: Average rainfalls for a particular month from a number of a years
Daily rainfall - the total rainfall for a particular day
Rain days - the number of days in a period with more than some threshold amount of rain
Mean monthly rain days - the average number of rain days for a particular month from a
number of years
Rainy Day mean rainfall - The average rainfall depth for rain days
Intermittency - proportion of wet and dry days

Lecture 6 Stochastic Rainfall Generation

Deterministic Rainfall Model

- numerical weather prediction model
 Complex physically based model of atmosphere, land-surface and ocean used for
weathering forecasting
 predictive limit ~ 10 days

Stochastic rainfall model

-statistically based model used for long-term analysis

Markov chain model - simulates wet/dry days

Gamma Distribution - simulates rainfall depths on rainy days

Lecture 7 Earth’s Energy Balance

Earth energy balance determines temperatures and temperature gradients

Key Driver of atmospheric and oceanic circulations:

1. Distribution of climate types
2. Hydrological Cycle

Black Bodies
- absorb all incident electromagnetic radiation
- emit radiation at all wavelengths
- emit radiation equally in all directions

Grey Bodies
-reflect some incident electromagnetic radiation
-emit radiation less effectively than a black body

Estimating total energy emit ted

T is in Kelvin 273.15

Sun & Earth Radiation Spectrum

Peak wavelength (lambda) of emitted radiation

Solar and thermal radiation

radiation from sun - solar or shortwave radiation
radiation from earth - thermal or terrestrial or long wave

Solar Constant I0 = 1367 ± 2Wm-2

-the radiative energy per unit area received at the top of the atmosphere from the sun at
the mean earth-sun distance

Albedo - the proportion of reflected incoming radiation

Why the observed radiative temperature of Earth does not equal to the calculated value?
Earth’s atmosphere is not ‘transparent’ to radiation
 atmospheric gases let most solar radiation through
 atmospheric gases absorb long-wave radiation and reradiated in all directions, some
up and some down

The natural greenhouse effect

-solar radiation reaches the earth, some is reflected back to the space
- earth’s radiation is absorbed and emitted by the atmosphere in thermal or infrared
wavelengths
- Emission is in all directions, thus some up and some down
- This is a natural effect that raises the surface temperature by 33°C
- the key GHG include H2O, CO2, O3, CH4, N2O

enhanced greenhouse effect

-higher concentration of GHG caused by human activities,
-leading to global warming, further increases the surface temperature of the earth

Global Energy Balance

The Surface energy balance

 Heating of the land surface by net radiation
 Net radiation balanced by cooling via
- Latent heat flux (80% of imbalance)
 Energy stored in water vapor from evaporated surface water
- Sensible heat flux (20% of imbalance)
 Energy transferred from the surface to the air via Conduction & Convection
Net energy balance of both the surface and atmosphere sums to zero, in = out

Net radiation = Rnet shortwave(surface) – Rnet long wave(surface)

=(incoming shortwave – outgoing shortwave) – (incoming longwave – outgoing longwave)

Rnet shortwave: Rnet longwave:

Lecture 8 Earth-sun relationships and solar radiation

Aphelion (less solar radiation) - greatest distance from sun

Perihelion (more solar radiation) - least distance from sun
Solstice - shortest/longest day of the year
Equinox - day when the sun is directly over the equator
Plane of Ecliptic - the plane in which the Earth orbits the sun
Equator - latitude where the sun is directly overhead on the Equinoxes
Tropic - latitude where the sun is directly overhead on the summer solstice
Arctic and Antarctic circles - latitude where the solar elevation is zero at solar noon on the
winter solstice

Axial Tilt - the earth rotates around an axis that is tilted at 23.5 to the orbital plane
- the tilt leads to varying day length and solar radiation
- As the Earth orbits the Sun, the tilt leads to varying day length and solar radiation
over time at a given latitude, higher solar radiation in summer, lower in winter
cause of seasons

Extraterrestrial Radiation - radiation from sun to the Earth

 Received most of the radiation in
January and December (beginning
and the end of the year) because
Melbourne is located in the Southern
Hemisphere.

Peak radiation at the equinox.

Extraterrestrial radiation received
throughout the year.

Received most radiation during June

and July. Opposite pattern to that of
Melbourne. Hence it’s in the
northern hemisphere.

Receives zero radiation in the

beginning and end of the year.
It is in the north of the arctic circle
and in the northern hemisphere
winter, its dark for 2 and half
months.
Energy use of building - Solar Passive Design

Sun angle calculations

Summer Declination - when

the sun is directly over the
Tropic of Capricorn

Winter declination - when

the sun is directly over the
Tropic of Cancer
Eave Design Problems

Latitude in the southern hemisphere is negative,

Latitude in the northern hemisphere is positive

If the house is in the northern hemisphere, summer declination angle is positive and winter
is negative.

Negative zenith angle means the sun is in the southern sky

Positive zenith angle means the sun is in the northern sky

Lecture 9 Climate change Issues

Natural variation in climatic forcing (heating/cooling cause by change of energy balance)

 Orbital - importance long term driver

-Precession of the equinoxes
-Eccentricity of the orbit
-Axial tilt (obliquity)
 Solar intensity
-Sun spot cycle
-Longer term variability
 Volcanic
- Emissions of gases (include GHGs)
- Emission of aerosols (dust etc)
- Interacts with radiative transfer through the atmosphere

Milankovitch cycles and radiative forcing

-solar irradiance does not have to change
- axial tilt
- Eccentricity
- Precession
Enhanced greenhouse effect
- human activity that contributed to the warming of the atmosphere
- the biggest emissions come from Carbon Dioxide, fossil fuels and industrial process (75%)

Lecture 10 The Water Cycle

Evaporation: loss of liquid water to the atmosphere as vapor

Transpiration: loss of water to the atmosphere through plant stomata
Evapotranspiration: the combination of evaporation and transpiration
Infiltration: the movement of water from the soil surface into the soil itself
Runoff: water flowing from the catchment in liquid form, either over the surface (surface
runoff) or through the subsurface
Groundwater: liquid water existing in saturated porous geological formations called
Aquifers
Soil water: liquid water in the soil, typically existing in unsaturated conditions

2 Drivers of the water cycle

 Sun - provides energy for evapotranspiration
 Gravity - water moves downstream/downhill eventually to the sea

How much energy is needed to drive the hydrologic cycle?

-Assume latent heat of vaporization = 2480 kJ/kg
-Density of water = 1000 kg/m3
- Mass = volume * density -> 1 m3 x 1000 kg/m3 = 1000kg (1000kg/m2/year of water
evaporated)
- Latent energy = 2480 * 1000 = 2.48*106 kJ/m2/year
  1 kJ = 1kWs
 2.48*106 kWs/m2/year
 2.48*106/31536000(the total number of seconds in a year) = 78.6 W/m2

1m of precipitation per year averaged over the globe

1m depth = 1m3/m2

Long term water balance calculation

-Mass conservation
-change in Storage, ΔS = in - out
ΔS = precipitation - evapotranspiration - runoff
ΔS = P - E - Q
E = P - Q, assuming ΔS = 0 over the long term
Limits to evapotranspiration
 Energy limited
- low available energy relative to rainfall
 Water limited
- Low rainfall relative to available energy

runoff depth runoff volume

Runoff coefficient: =
rainfall depth rainfall volume
1000 liter = 1 m3
always convert to millimeters

Water Scarcity
- Aridity: low rainfall, high potential evapotranspiration
- Variability: Wet seasons and dry seasons mean large excess sometimes, but scarcity in
other seasons
- Lack of infrastructure to manage variability
- poor water quality

Lecture 11 Catchment Processes

Catchment/basin/watershed- a topographically defined area of land in which water flowing
over the surface eventually flows through a single point or outlet of a stream or river
Catchment hydrological cycle- flux

Catchment - Water Stores

Soil as a porous media

- consists of solid particles and pores
- The pores can be filled with air or water
Porosity i= Volume of pore space/ Total volume of soil
Soil moisture in volume(m3/m3) = volume of soil water/ Total volume of soil

Capillarity
 Surface tension causes water to rise in a capillary tube
 Forces
- between water surface and glass tube (upward)
- Weight of water (downward)
 Capillary rise is
h = 2s x cos(θc) / ρgr
s= surface tension
ρ = Density
g = gravity

 Reducing r increases h

Implications of soil Capillarity

 The capillary effect holds water in soil against the force of gravity, and restricts the
availability of water to plant
 soil filled with water will drain under the influence of gravity (gravity > capillary
force)
- Some water will remain in the soil after drainage ceases (gravity = capillary force)
- Field capacity(θfcp) is the soil moisture at which gravity drainage ceases/amount of
water content held in soil after excess water has drained away
 Plants must overcome the capillary force in order to extract water for transpiration
- Wilting point is the soil moisture at which plants cant extract any more water
(capillary force = root water potential)
- Porosity is the amount of the water soil particles can hold

Soil Drainage example

5 cubic meters of soil with field capacity of 0.3 has a volumetric soil moisture of 0.25
 1m3 of water is added to this soil
 What will the moisture content be after drainage?
 How much water will drain from this soil?
Soil Water balance
Lecture 12 Catchment Processes - Estimating
Evapotranspiration

Transpiration Processes

Drivers of Evapotranspiration
Net loss of water occurs if there is a vapor pressure deficit (VPD) compared with saturation
at the evaporating surface
- VPD occurs when relative humidity < 100%

The distance between parcel of air and the

line is the amount of water it can accept. If
it is already on the line, its relative
humidity should be 100% and it will not
accept any more water vapor. Evaporation
will not occur. If the parcel of air is on the
left side of the line, it means it is too
saturated and evaporation will not occur
and VPD will be 0.
Potential and Actual Evapotranspiration
 If there is no water, evapotranspiration can’t occur
 Potential Evapotranspiration(PET): the amount of evapotranspiration that would
occur when water is freely available (not water limited)
 Actual evapotranspiration (AET): the amount of evapotranspiration that actually
occurs
 AET<= PET

Priestly - Taylor Equation

Estimating Actual Evapotranspiration

 Low soil moisture availability may reduce actual ET below PET
 Plants find it hard to extract water when the capillary force is high
 As soil moisture decreases -> AET decreases relative to PET
-plant growth rates reduce
 Soil moisture can reduce to the wilting point
-Soil moisture level where plants can no longer extract moisture and they wilt and
die

Lecture 13 Catchment Processes - Runoff generation

3 Event Processes
1. Infiltration excess runoff
- rainfall rate > infiltration rate
- rain can’t soak in quickly enough
2. Saturation excess runoff - occurs when water table forms in the soil and rises to the
surface
- Rainfall rate > saturated infiltration rate
- Rain soaks in slowly because the soil is already saturated
3. Subsurface stormflow - occurs under wet conditions on moderate to steep slopes where
the soil profile has the capacity to deliver high flow rates to the stream
- Rain soaks in but then quickly drains out
Darcy’s Law (Groundwater flow)

Baseflow from groundwater

Runoff from runoff infiltrates through the

soil and moves down to the saturated
area.

Groundwater Recharge
- occurs when soil moisture is above field
capacity and drainage is occurring
-The rate of recharge maybe limited by
the hydraulic conductivity of soil or
regolith
- Rate tends to reduce as soil moisture
educes towards field capacity

Lecture 14 Catchment Processes - Catchment model

Single Store and Two Store Model
Catchment modelling - Volume and Equivalent Depth
 Rainfall is measured as Depth
 Runoff is measured as Volume
 Use Runoff Depth to compare the two

Assumptions regarding runoff processes (One store model)

 Infiltration excess is unimportant
- High infiltration capacity relative to rainfall intensity
 Saturation excess and subsurface stormflow dominate event runoff
 soil drainage becomes base flow in the stream immediately

Single store flux equations

1000 liter = 1 m3
always convert to millimeters

Two Store Model

Lecture 14 Catchment Processes - Modelling

How do we measure streamflow?

Rating Curve

Lecture 16 - Solid Earth, tectonics and earthquakes

Rock Types
1. Igneous
- Formed from cooling of magma (molten rock)
- Intrusive: cools and solidifies below the earth
surface, typically hard and has low porosity
- Extrusive: cools from lava extruded above the
surface from volcanic eruptions (e,g basalt),
generally hard and variable porosity
2. Sedimentary
- Formed from deposition and lithification of
material
- Clasts formed from erosion of parent material
- Chemical deposition
 - Biogenic deposition
- Following deposition, often requires burial to lithify the unconsolidated sediments into
a rock

3. Metamorphic
- ‘Change in form’ of existing rock type (protolith) due to heat and pressure resulting
from deep burial or subduction
- Typically have hard, crystalline structure
- primary porosity is greatly reduced by new mineral growth
- Often have similar chemistry as the parent rock

Chemical Difference
Majority of rocks are composed of silicate minerals and main chemical differentiation is
between mafic and felsic rocks
 Mafics - rich in iron and magnesium rich silicates
- relatively dark colored, dense and susceptible to chemical weathering
 Felsics rich in (>75%) alumino- silicates and silica
- light colored, less dense but often hard and less susceptible to chemical weathering

Plate boundaries

Elastic Rebound (which causes Earthquake)

- Elastic deformation leads to rupture
- when rupture happens, energy release(in the form of heat and vibration) propagates
through the material and creates earthquake
- happens at the boundaries and the inner region of the plate
Faults:
1. Normal Fault (tensional): forces are applied in opposite direction away from each other
2. Reverse Fault (Compressional): forces are applied against each other
3. Strike-slip Fault (Shear): forces applied in parallel direction

Basins

-A geological basin is a large low-lying are located below sea level

- Areas of subsidence are created by extensional and compressional tectonics. The vast
amounts of sediments formatting by weathering/erosion of mountains can be accumulated
in them with enhancing subsidence.
Importance of basins:
-vast majority of non-renewable energy
-some renewable energy: geothermal
-most exploited supplies of groundwater comes in basins
-most fertile agricultural lands occur in basins

Lecture 17 Landscape Forming Processes I

Landscape forming processes

1. Weathering
 Mechanical
 Chemical
2. Erosion
 Agents of Erosion (water, ice, wind, biological)
3. Deposition
 Energy state of transporting medium

1. Weathering
- The decomposition, or break-down, of rock material through mechanical or chemical
means. It occurs in situ (no significant movement from its place of origin) and it typically the
precursor to erosion.

Mechanical Weathering
- Break-down of rocks into clasts or minerals by mechanical (physical) forces.
 Abrasion
 Freezing and thawing of moisture
 Salt crystal growth
 heating and Cooling
 Air Pressure loading (wave action)
 Pressure unloading
  Biological (effects of plant roots)

- Cold
 dry climatic conditions favor physical weathering

Chemical Weathering
- Decomposition, dissolution or loosening of rock components by chemical processes
 Dissolution
- Water (rainfall, soil moisture or runoff) combines with CO2 in the atmosphere or
from breakdown of organic matter in the soil to produce a weakly acidic solution which can
dissolve calcium carbonate
 Hydrolysis
- Reaction of water with minerals to produce secondary minerals
 Oxidation
- Oxidation, particularly of metallic ions and iron bearing silicates, occurs in contact
with the atmosphere and from oxygen dissolved in water
 Biological
- Besides plants assisting in mechanical weathering, they can also result in the
production of organic acids that breakdown carbonates and silicates.

- Hot
 Wet climatic conditions favor chemical weathering

Rates of Weathering
The rate of weathering can depend on;
- surface area exposed to weathering agent
- mineral composition
- climatic conditions

2. Erosion

- The removal of soil, sediments or rocks from their location in situ location. Erosion can
occur via;
 water (rain drop, sheet flow, Gully and rill, stream and valley, wave or shoreline)
 wind (can erode and transport unconsolidated sediments )
 ice (occurs through glacier movement, but freezing and thawing of water in pores,
cracks and crevices can contribute to erosion by other transport means)
 gravity creep (movement of material downslope under the influence of gravity)
 biological disturbance (burrowing animals, grazing animals)
- Erosion typically follows, or is concurrent with weathering.
- It is a natural process but rates of erosion can be exacerbated by human activities and can
be an order of magnitude or more than soil forming rates.

Natural rates of erosion vary over orders of magnitude based on:

- topography
- climate
- rock and sediment type
-vegetation amount and type
-soil cover

3. Deposition
Eroded and transported materials end up as deposited sediments. This occurs when the
transporting medium experiences a change in energy state that results in the deposition of
the transported material.

Example: A river enters the sea and experiences a large decrease in current velocity and
deposits sediments in a delta.
A storm energy dissipates and drops wind-borne sand and silt.
A glacier enters a lake or the sea and breaks up
Mass movement ends at a break in slope at the base of hills

Lecture 18 Landscape Forming Processes II

Soils:
Soil Forming factors:
-parent material
- climate
-topography
-biotic potential
-time

Functions of Soil layers

O Horizon:
-Protects the underlying topsoil from
erosion and moisture loss.
-Habitat for organisms that decompose the
organic material

A Horizon
- contains organic humus, holds water and
nutrients (most fertile layer)

B Horizon is not as fertile, but deep-rooted

plants can utilize the water and minerals

C Horizon
Eluviation and illuviation
Eluviation is the downward leaching, or the removal of clay particles, organic matter, and/or
oxides of iron and aluminum from the A and upper part of B horizon to form the E horizon.

Illuviation is the process where downward moving, fine material, is accumulated in the B
horizon. The accumulation of fine material leads to the creation of a dense layer in the soil.

Soil Formation:
S = f (p, cl, r, o, t), where S = any soil property is a function of:

p = parent material
cl = external climate
r = topography
o = biotic potential
t = time

Parent Material
- can include in situ rock, transported unconsolidated sediments and organic material
- parent material composition has a direct impact on soil texture, chemistry and fertility.
 transported sands or weathered sandstone are likely to produce a coarse-grained,
infertile, easily drained/leached but stable soil
 Soils developed over basalt parent material are likely to produce a fine-grained,
fertile soil but also with a high swelling clay content and possibly poorly drained.

Climate
- Combination of rainfall, temperature, energy availability, humidity, diurnal and seasonal
fluctuations
- Climate also has a large influence on vegetation cover

Topography
- Elevation & Slope affect the stability of a site, the balance between erosion and deposition,
microclimate and vegetation types.

Biotic Potential
-The biotic potential of a site during soil formation is influenced by the previous parameters:
parent material climate and topography
-Supply of humus from decaying plant/animal matter or excretions
-Influence on soil chemistry
-Physical transformation or reworking of soil structure (worms, ants)

Time:
- A one-meter thick soil developed from loss in temperate USA in 8000 years
-A one-meter thick soil in tropical Africa took 75,000 years to form
- An average global soil formation rate has been calculated to be 178 years per cm

Pedogenic Processes
Two examples of pedogenic soil development, relatively common in Australia, that illustrate
the complex interactions between soil development and their chemistry.
- Laterization
 High rainfall, warm, tropical climate
 Extensive leaching of the soil profile leaving only a aluminum rich clays and iron
oxide layers
 Typically poor organic content due to leaching although can have a heavy vegetation
cover
 Implications:
1. Relatively infertile soils that require substantial fertilizer input
2. Easy to dig (rock has decomposed) and made up of stable clays
3. Can form or redistribute mineral deposits
- Acid sulfate soils
 Waterlogged areas with reducing conditions may also precipitate pyrite(FeS 2) if
sufficient sulfate is available in groundwater or soil profile
 This is common in low lying area
 Implications:
1. Oxidation of pyrite can lower pH to levels that are devastating to aquatic habitats
and ecosystems
2. Low pH waters can dissolve lime in concrete and damage infrastructure, as well
as corrode metals

Lecture 19 Basic Soil Characteristics

Phase Diagram
Soil Properties in terms of volumetric ratios

Soil Properties in terms of density

An example of Engineering Application
Two compacts soil samples have identical total mass volume of:
M = 170g, V = 81.9 cm3

Other characteristics:
Sample 1: Mw = 20% Gravity = 2.65
Sample 2: Mw = 25% Gravity = 2.90

Which sample is closer to water saturation?

Answer:
Degree of Saturation = Vwater / Vvoid (Volume of water + air)

Total volume:
VA + VW + VS = 81.9cm3

Total mass:
MA + MW + MS = 170g

Air Mass is negligible:

MA = 0

Water density is 1g/cm3;

ρwater = MW/VW = 1g/cm3
Water content:
MW/MS = 0.2

Specific Gravity for solid particles = ρS/ ρwater = 2.65

Since ρwater = 1, ρS = 2.65
Ms/Vs = 2.65
Since:
MW = 0.2 MS
MW + MS = 170g
x + 0.2x = 170
x = 141.67(Ms)

To find out Mw:

170-141.67=28.3 (Mw)

To find out Vs and Vvoid:

141.67/2.65 = 53.46 (Vs)
81.9 - 53.46 = 28.44 (Vvoid)

To find out VW:

Since Mw/Vw = 1g/cm3
Vw = 28.3
Va = 28.44 - 28.3 = 0.11

28.3/28.44 = 99.5% (degree of saturation for sample 1)

Particle Size Distribution

Lecture 20 Soil Classification

Identifying soil sample from graph:
Sample A (Silty clay with some sand) :
58% Clay, 27% of Silt, 15% of Sand
*Naming technique: Adjective (second majority of composition) + Noun (majority of
composition) with (the least in composition)
Sample C: Poorly graded gravelly sand
82% sand + 18% gravel, it is poorly graded because the soil has a narrow distribution
of sizes
Sample D: Well graded soil containing cobbles, gravel, sand, silt clay
It is called well graded because it has a good distribution of different sizes of soil
particles so it’s good for engineering applications
Sieve Analysis

Uniformity Coefficient implies whether the soil is poorly graded or not

If the D60/D10 ratio is small, that indicates D60 is almost equivalent to D10.
That means the average particle size is almost equivalent to the smallest particle size.
So the particle size distribution is within a narrow range.
[Therefore, it’s a poorly graded soil.

Hydraulic Conductivity (ease with which water flows through soil)

k = 100(D10)2
where
k is in units of cm/sec,
D10 in units of cm

Definition of s:
The ability of a soil to undergo unrecoverable deformation at constant volume without
cracking or crumbling.
-low plasticity -> low reactivity
Difference phases of fine grained soil defined by Atterberg limits:

Liquid State: When water is being added to a cohesive soil and the mixture eventually
becomes slurry in a liquid form
Plastic State: As the soil dries and loses moisture, it re-gains strength and plasticity
Semi-Solid State: When the soil continues to dry and lose moisture, its texture becomes stiff
while losing plasticity and eventually it will become brittle
Solid State: As the soil further dries, it shrinks to a point where there is no more moisture to
be lost and its volume remains unchanged.

Plasticity index = Liquid limit – plastic limit

Plastic limit = sum of moisture content/number of tests
Liquid limit (Casagrande method) = graph with moisture content vs number of blows
Shrinkage Limit = water content of the soil when the water is just sufficient to fill all the
pores of the soil and the soil is just saturated.

Importance of Atterberg limits

Quantifying the upper limit of plasticity range

 The liquid limit is the moisture content at which a soil changes from plastic to liquid
state
 Water can be added to a fine grained soil until the soil becomes a slurry and behaves
as a viscous fluid
Visually Classifying Soil sample
Coarse Grained Vs Fine Grained
 Classify the soil as ‘coarse grained’ if > 50% of the particles are visible to naked eye
(larger than ~0.075mm)
 Classify the soil as ‘fine grained’ if <50% are not visible to naked eye
 Classify as gravel if >50% of the coarse fraction is of gravel size (larger than ~2mm);
otherwise classify as sand
 Classify as ‘clean’ sand or ‘clean’ gravel if the fine fraction (part that is not visible by
the eye) is small
 Classify as ‘well graded’ sand or gravel if grain size grading is evenly distributed;
otherwise classified as poorly graded

If Fine Grained;
 Classify fine grained fraction soil based on 3 criteria
- Dry strength (crushing characteristic)
- Dilatency (reaction to shaking)
- Toughness (consistency near plastic limit)
Unified Soil classification system

Hydrometer Method:
-Hydrometer calibrated in terms of grams of soil suspended is used to measure the change
in density with time
-with density of soil suspension, mass of soil(solids) can be calculated (with density of water
available) as soil particles settles over time
- the rates at which particles fall are governed by the radius of the particles, R (Stoke’s law is
applied to predict the settling times for various sized particles)
-distribution curve is then plotted with the data collected (particles smaller than 0.075mm)
Lecture 21 Soil Mechanics

Wetting influence on soil stability

 Increasing of water content causes the overall volume of the soil to be increased in
fine grained soil due to associated swelling
 Reduces the overall strength of the soil
Drying influence on soil stability
 Caused by overall volume reduction due to loss of soil water and associated
shrinkage induced cracking
 Weakening is caused by crack initiation
Definition of Soil Strength
- The ability of any material to withstand against the imposed forces without failure
- Forms of strength
 Tensile
 Compressive
 Shear
Soil liquefaction
 pore-water pressure rises
 Inter-granular force reduces
 Soil particles can readily move with respect to each other
 Soil temporarily behaves as a viscous liquid
Liquefaction induced by Earthquake
 Earthquake shaking can cause substantial increase in pore water pressure
 Strength and structure of saturated soil are destructed by earthquake shaking

Failure of a slope:
On a steeper slope, the shear stress or tangential component of gravity increases and and
the perpendicular
component of gravity
decreases

Analogy - Effect of water

pressure on soil stability

Weight is made up of Normal

force(N) and Driving Force(T).

Friction force is acting on the

 If there is a pinhole at the bottom of
the container, water leaks into the
interface.

The net contact force N - P reduces,

hence F reduces too.

If F < T, the container will slide.

If water pressure enters in

between the soil particles,
friction and resistance decreases
and slope failure start.

Lecture 22 Water in Soil I

Water in soil
 Gravitational water ( free to move under influence of gravity)
 Adsorb water (through adsorption)
 Capillary water (through suction and capillary effects)

Water retention mechanisms in soil

Adsorption
Water molecules is tightly attached to soil
particle due to intermolecular attraction.

Can only be found in soil samples with a

lot of clay because of the clay minerals.

Clay made of tiny mineral particles

carrying negative charge.

These negative charges attract cations.

Suction - helps retain “free” water in soil
 Suction depends on the particle size, fine grain soil has smaller particle size and
smaller pore size and the capillary effect is greater hence the suction is greater.

 Phenomenon of Capillary Tube

 Surface tension of water

- The attraction between same type of molecules called cohesion and among
different types of molecules called adhesion
- In the bulk liquid, each molecule is pulled equally in every direction by neighbouring
liquid molecules with resulting zero net force.
- The water molecules in the air-water interface are subjected to both cohesion and
adhesion creating forces.
- However, the adhesion between air-water is much smaller than the cohesion
between water - water
- The net effect is an inward force at its surface with causing the liquid surface to
behave as a stretched clastic membrane and contract to its minimal area.

Capillary Action
 Although water molecules are pretty strongly attracted to each other, they are also
attracted to the tube wall
 If the adhesion forces between water and tube wall exceeds the cohesion effect
water molecules climb up along the tube wall
 The wider the tube, the cohesive forces between water molecules are greater than
the adhesion forces between water and tube wall
 That avoids water from climbing the sides of the glass. The narrower the tube the
greater the effect of capillary action.
Applying Capillary tube equation in soil
Typical Capillary Rises in Various Soil Types

Capillary Effect in Soil

 To calculate the area above the water table, the sign of the formula needs to be
inversed because the water is being pulled up through suction instead of gravity.
 suction can be expressed in negative pressure (eg, -10kPa)
 only works with fine grained soil

Example:
Suction VS Moisture Content

Lecture 23 Water in Soil II

Swelling (only works with Fine grained soil - clay)
- a soil swells (increases in volume) as it gets wetted and retains water

Shrinkage
- A soil shrinks (decreases in volume) as it dries and loses water

Shrinkage Limit (SL) - water content of the soil when the water is just sufficient to fill all the
pores of the soil and the soil is just saturated

Why shrinkage is not considered? - If Mass of soil is always under saturated condition (not
past the shrinkage limit), the volume reduction only occurred to the reduction of the water
Determining the Shrinkage Limit
 After the Shrink limit, the void volume stays unchanged as air replaces the loss of
water volume
 Higher shrinkage limit is better because the volume doesnt changes when the
moisture content reaches the shrinkage limit.

Reactive Soils
 soils that exhibits large swelling and shrinkage behavior as soil moisture content
fluctuates
  Reactive soils are problematic for structure with shallow footing
 Soil with significant amount of expansive clay minerals

Lecture 23 Water in Soil III

In saturated soil pore water pressure causes to reduce their inter-aggregate contact forces.
(shear strength reduced)

In unsaturated soil, suction assists in enhancing the inter-aggregate contact forces with
more strongly bonding aggregate towards each other (shear strength enhanced)

When Soil is saturated(direction of moisture flow):

- Water always flow from high pressure to pressure
- Sand has higher gravity pressure because sand has a high water table

When Soil is unsaturated:

- Moisture content cannot be used to determine the direction of moisture flow
- Suction determines the direction of moisture flow, water flows towards high suction

Lecture 25 Soil Stress

Stresses develop in the ground - By weight of soil
- By external load

Force F is travelling through pore water

and soil skeleton summation of soil
particles).

When Force F is applied, pore water

pressure increases and inter-particle
contact force develops.

F = Force applied to water in the vertical

direction + Force applied to soil in the
vertical direction

F = FW + FS
 uAW = Pore water pressure * cross section area of water

Effective Stress σ' - a measure of the level of the inter-particle contact force
-(higher effective stress, higher the soil strength)
- used to predict soil behaviors because inter - particle contact tells us
how much stress is experienced by the soil skeleton
How Do Sand Castle Stand still?

Wet sand and dry sand

Effective Stress as indicator for Soil stability:

Landslide
- water pressure increases -> effective stress reduces -> weaker inter-particle contact force

Liquefaction
 Pore-water pressure rises caused by earthquake
  Intergranular forces reduces until no contact stress
 Soil particles can readily move with respect to each other
 Soil temporarily behaves as a viscous liquid

Dry Clay vs Wet Clay

 Clay behaves as a hard solid as it gets very dry (eg, with high suction)
 As u reduces, σ' (or inter-granular contact stress) increases, the soil becomes denser
and stronger (it would be hard to break up a lump of very dry clay without a
hammer)

Horizontal and Vertical Stresses in the ground

1. Vertical Stress (from self-weight of soil)

Horizontal Stress

The Classical five steps - to calculate the total stress, pore water pressure, vertical &
horizontal stress
σ'h = koσ'v (only under natural ground condition)
σ'h = σh - u

Fine Grained Soil

Capillary effect only works on
Orientation/direction of failure plane – 1. find the pole
2. find the failure interception
3. Apply the formula and find the angle

τfailure = c’ + σ’failure tan ɸ’

Lecture 26 Soil Stress II

Mohr Circle
- Represents shear stress and normal stress condition of any plane in a soil element
- need 2 perpendicular plane with no normal stress and shear stress
- if the shear stress rotates in clockwise direction, the sign is -. Otherwise the sign is +.
- For principle planes, shear stress is 0
- Major principles has maximum normal stress, minor principle planes has minimum normal
stress

Using the ‘Pole’ Method to determine stresses acting on Planes other than Horizontal and
Vertical Planes
 A pole or ‘point of origin’ is a specific point on a Mohr circle that when a line drawn
passed through that point, the line will intercept the circle at a point where;
1. The inclination of the line represent the direction of the plane through the soil element
2. The x-coordinate represents the normal stress acting perpendicular to that plane
3. The y-coordinate represents the shear stress acting along that plane

Locating the pole

1. Find the normal stress and shear stress
2. Draw a line on the Mohr Circle parallel to the angle of the plane

Horizontal force applied to soil element:

Once the failure envelope touches the mohr circle,

We know it’s the final circle because the soil is failing at that stage

Load applied to soil at particular depth

Surcharge Load Scenario:
-Horizontal stress increment is too small comparing to the vertical stress, which can be
treated as 0

Horizontal Load:
-vertical stress doesn’t change

Vertical Excavation:
-reduction in horizontal stress only

Horizontal excavation:
-reduction in vertical stress only
-ground heave may happen

Lecture 28 Soil Strength 1

Soil strength
- the ability of the material to resist imposed stresses
1. Tensile Strength
2. Compressive Strength
3. Shear Strength

Direct Shear Test

-only works for unsaturated sand because there are no technique to measure the relevant
pore water pressure during a shear test
-water spills out during the direct shear test

Friction angle
- resistance for shearing
- depends on particle arrangement
- τfailure = c’ + σ’failure tan ɸ’
- c’ = τfailure when normal stress = 0

Loose sand – since there is space between soil particles as soil stress applied increases, the
volume of the mass decreases

Dense sand – there is no space between soil particles, as shear stress increases, soil volume
increases
-at the peak shear stress, the soil is already converted to loose sand
-as shear stress further increases, the volume of soil decreases until residual shear stress

Triaxial Test –
The Consolidated Drained (CD) traxial Test – pore
water is allowed to dissipate throughout the test
(total stress = effective stress)
-confined stress(initial stress) = σh =
σvi
-deviator stress(additional stress
from external load) = σ1 – σc = σvf -
σvi

The Consolidated undrained (CU) traxial Test – with drainage closed, change in pore water
pressure is greater than 0

The mohr circle does not go over the failure envelope because the failure from the direct
shear test has only one failure plane
Soil Strength 3

Effect of loading and resulting drainage on Soil Shear Strength

Spring and Piston Analogy

Sandy Soil with High permeability

- Pore water pressure remains hydrostatics throughout (since well-drained, no build
up in water pressure)
- Surcharge load transferred quickly to soil skeleton
- Hence the soil consolidate immediately and if not failed, results with an increase in
shear strength

Clay with low permeability

-pore water pressure will dissipates gradually with time and eventually return back to
hydrostatic
-surcharge load transferred gradually to soil skeleton
-hence the soil consolidates gradually and, if not, failed results with an gradual increase in
shear strength

Soil Stability Problem Solving

Clay - has pore water pressure

Sand - no pore water pressure, only consider long term after construction

Short term after embankment

- increase in pore water pressure
-soil element compressing due to vertical embankment loading
- soil volume constrain due to lack of drainage

Short term after excavation

- reduction of pore water pressure
- surrounding soils has higher water pressure, water starts to go into the system until
equilibrium
- happens quickly with sandy soil

Soil Mineralogy

Non clay minerals

- has been hardly affected by weathering ( very abundant in source rock)
E.g Quartz, carbonates, oxides
- greater individual particle size than clay fraction
- behavior governed by gravity forces
-、

Clay minerals
- has been being weathered completely with forming a ‘new’ material
- small individual size
- high specific surface area -> high surface force

Kaolinite
- Large size and small surface area
- thicker and stable stacks
- low reactivity because interlayer spacing is small, therefore only small number of
cations can come in, hence low cation exchange capacity (CEC)

Montemorillonite
- small size and high surface area, so water absorption is high, water molecules can
come into interlayer spacing, hence high CEC.
- interlayer swelling occurs with expanding the soil, high swelling and high shrinkage
- high reactivity because it has large interlayer spacing so more cations can sit in the
interlayer

Clay
- extremely small mass
-large surface area
-