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Encyclopedia of Engineering Geology pp 1–7Cite as

Expansive Soils

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Part of the Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series book series (EESS)

Definition

Expansive Soils are soils that have the ability to shrink and/or swell, and thus change in volume, in relation to changes in their moisture content. They usually contain some form of expansive clay mineral, such as smectite or vermiculite, that are able to absorb water and swell, increasing in volume, when they get wet and shrink when they dry. The more water they absorb, the more their volume increases. For the most expansive soils volume changes of 10% are not uncommon (Chen 1988; Nelson and Miller 1992).

Introduction

Many of the world’s largest towns and cities, and therefore their arterial transport routes, services, and buildings, are founded on clay-rich soils and rocks. These expansive soils can prove to be a substantial hazard to engineering construction due to their ability to shrink or swell with seasonal changes in moisture content, local site changes such as leakage from water supply pipes or drains, changes to surface drainage and landscaping or following the...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. British Geological Survey, Keyworth, Notts, UK

    Lee Jones

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  1. Lee Jones
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Correspondence to Lee Jones .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Natural Resources Canada, Geological Survey of Canada Natural Resources Canada, Sidney, Ontario, Canada

    Dr. Peter Bobrowsky

  2. London, United Kingdom

    Dr. Brian Marker

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Jones, L. (2018). Expansive Soils. In: Bobrowsky, P., Marker, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Engineering Geology. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12127-7_118-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12127-7_118-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-12127-7

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