• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.375-384
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• 2022

The glacial tills and shales in Midwestern states of the USA often show strength degradation after construction. They are often in need of applying soil modification techniques to remediate their strength degradation with weathering process. This study investigated the weathering durability of these natural soils and biopolymer treated soils by comparing direct shear test results for wet-dry and wet-freeze-thaw-dry cycled specimens. The tests showed that untreated glacial tills maintained only 62% and 50% initial shear strength after eight wet-dry cycles and eight wet-freeze-thaw-dry cycles, respectively. These untreated soils could not withstand by themselves after 16 weathering cycles. The same soils treated with 1.5% (by dry weight) food-grade Xanthan gum maintained 140% and 88% initial shear strength of untreated soils after 16 weathering cycles for wet-dry cycles and wet-freeze-thaw-dry cycles, respectively. The same soils treated with 1.5% (by dry weight) Gellan gum maintained 82% and 60% initial shear strength of untreated ones after 16 weathering cycles, respectively. Similar results were obtained for crushed shales, manifesting that the biopolymerization method may be adopted as a new eco-friendly method to enhance the weathering durability of these problematic soils of glacial tills and shales.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.42 no.2 s.119
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• pp.165-176
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• 2007

Absolute age of the deposition of 1.3 km-thick Bunthang sequence within the Skardu intermontane basin of the Central Karakoram was determined using radioactive decay of cosmogonic $^{10}Be$ and $^{26}Al$ burial dating. The Bunthang sequence deposited around 2.65 Ma, which is the oldest glaciation in the region. The timing of deposition of the Bunthang sequence is consistent with the previous suggestion that the basin filling took place between Brunhess and Matuyama chrons. Four major sedimentary facies interfinger within the Bunthang sequence: glacial diamict, lacustrine, fluvial and lacustrine facies upward. This sedimentary distinctiveness and the lack of evidence on the faults for alternative pull-apart basin model around the Bunthang sequence, suggest that the depressional basin was formed by deep subglacial erosion during the exrtensive Bunthang Glacial Stage and subsequently the sediments underlain by basal diamict, was quickly deposited by preglacial and paraglacial processes. Temporary ponding of the Indus River due to tectonic uplift in the downstream or blockage by mass movements might make the basin filing more possible. The hypothesis that the single ice sheet developed on the Tibetan Plateau during the global last glacial cycle should be refuted by the existence of the older extensive Bunthang glacier Furthermore, the extensive glaciation during the early Quaternary (and thus progressive decrease in extent with time) suggests that there may have been significant uplift of the Pamir to the west and Himalaya to the south, which would have reduced the penetration of westerlies and Indian summer monsoon and hence moisture supply to the region.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2006

Analyses of sedimentological and geochemical parameters from two radiocarbon-dated sediment cores (JM98-845-PC and JM98-818-PC) retrieved from the central part of Isfjorden, Svalbard, in the Arctic Sea, reveal detailed paleoclimatic and paleoceanographic histories over the last 15,000 radiocarbon years. The overconsolidated diamicton at the base of core JM98-845-PC is supposed to be a basal till deposited beneath pounding glacier that had advanced during the LGM (Last Glacial Maximum). Deglaciation of the fjord commenced after the glacial maximum, marked by the deposition of interlaminated sand and mud in the ice-proximal zone by subglacial meltwater discharge, and prevailed between 13,700 and 10,800 yr B.P. with enriched-terrigenous organic materials. A return to colder conditions occurred at around 10,800 yr B.P. with a drop in TOC content, which is probably coincident with the Younger Dryas event in the North Atlantic region. At this time, an abrupt decrease of TOC content as well as an increase in C/N ratio suggests enhanced terrigenous input due to the glacial readvance. A climatic optimum is recognized between 8,395 and 2,442 yr B.P., coinciding with 'a mid-Holocene climatic optimum' in Northern Hemisphere sites (e.g., the Laurentide Ice sheet). During this time, as the sea ice receded from the fjord, enhanced primary productivity occurred in open marine conditions, resulting in the deposition of organic-enriched pebbly mud with evidence of TOC maxima and C/N ratio minima in sediments. Fast ice also disappeared from the coast, providing the maximum of IRD (ice-rafted debris) input. Around 2,442 yr B.p. (the onset of Neoglacial), pebbly mud, characterized by a decrease in TOC content, reflects the formation of more extensive sea ice and fast ice, which might cause decreased primary productivity in the surface water, as evidenced by a decrease in TOC content. Our results provide evidence of climatic change on the Svalbard fjords that helps to refine the existence and timing of late Pleistocene and Holocene millennial-scale climatic events in the Northern Hemisphere.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.23 no.11
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• pp.99-107
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• 2007

The linear curve fitting methods such as the Hvorslev method and the Bouwer and Rice method provide a rapid and simple means to analyze slug test data for estimating in-situ hydraulic conductivity (k) of geologic material. However, when analyzing a slug test in a relatively compressible aquifer, these methods have difficulties in fitting a straight line to the semi-logarithmic plot of the test data that shows a concave-upward curvature because the linear curve fitting methods ignore the role of the compressibility or specific storage ($S_s$) of an aquifer. The comparison of the Hvorslev method and the Bouwer and Rice method is made far a partially-penetrating well geometry to show analytically that the Hvorslev method estimates higher hydraulic conductivity than the Bouwer and Rice method except that the well intake section locates very close to the bottom of the aquifer. The effect of fitting a straight line to the slug test data is evaluated along with the dimensionless compressibility parameter (${\alpha}$) ranging from 0.001 to 1. A modified linear curve fitting method that is expanded from Chirlin's approach to the case of a partially penetrating well with the basic-time-lag fitting method is introduced. A case study for a compressible glacial till is made to verify the proposed method by comparing with a type curve method (KGS method).