The topics covered in this book begin with consideration of soil formation in Chapter 2 and soil mineralogy and compositional analysis of soil in Chapter 3.Relationships between soil composition and engineering properties are developed in Chapter 4. Soil composition by itself is insufficient for quantification of soil properties for specific situations, because the soil fabric, that is, the arrangements of particles, particle groups, and pores, may play an equally important role.This topic is covered in Chapter 5.Water may make up more than half the volume of a soil mass, it is attracted to soil particles, and the interactions between water and the soil surfaces influence the behavior. In addition, owing to the colloidal nature of clay particles, the types and concentrations of chemicals in a soil can influence significantly its behavior in a variety of ways. Soil water and the clay–water–electrolyte system are then analyzed in Chapter PCl@Ff
6. An analysis of interparticle forces and total and effective stresses, with a discussion of why they are important,is given in Chapter 7.The remaining chapters draw on the preceding developments for explanations of phenomena and soil properties of interest in geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineering. The formation of soil deposits, their resulting structures and relationships to geotechnical properties and stability are covered in Chapter 8.The next three chapters deal with those soil properties that are of primary importance to the solution of most geoengineering problems: the flows of fluids, chemicals,electricity, and heat and their consequences in Chapter 9; volume change behavior in Chapter 10; and deformation and strength and deformation behavior in Chapter 11. Finally, Chapter 12 on time effects on strength and deformation recognizes that soils are not inert, static materials, but rather how a given soil responds under different rates of loading or at some time in the future may be quite different than how it responds today.
