For a soil to be labeled expansive, it must contain significant amounts of smectite (montmorillonitic clay minerals) (see Vol. IVB: Soil Mineralogy). The expansive soil becomes a problem, however, when variations in the ambient environment produce changes in the soil moisture content that in turn cause a volume change in the soil profile.
Expansive soils are a worldwide problem. Donaldson (1969), e.g., cites nineteen countries where swelling and shrinking soils cause serious engineering problems. Throughout the United States, expansive soils are responsible for $2.3 billion damage annually (Jones and Holtz, 1973), with over $1 billion damage to highways and streets. Expansive soils are, in fact, the single most costly natural disaster; the average yearly loss from earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods combined amounts to only half that due to expansive soils.
A typical approach to the design of light structures on expansive soils is to construct a foundation that resists soil...
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Mathewson, C.C. (1988). Expansive soils, engineering geology . In: General Geology. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-30844-X_25
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