Physico-chemical Properties and Mineralogical Identification of Soils from Mélange in Beluran-Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia

Abstract

The study area located in the main road of Beluran - Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia which mostly consists of melange. Melange material consists of mixed rocks with different sizes and originated from old rock formation. These materials commonly embedded in shale matrix and highly sheared. A total of twelve soil samples were collected along the main road in order to analyse the physico-chemical properties and mineral identification. The result of analysis shows the moisture content was in the range from 7.0% to 23.38% with the plasticity indexes were in the range from 6.32% to 34.18%. The plotted in plasticity chart shows that the soil can be classified as intermediate plasticity to high plasticity. The texture of soil best classified as clayey sand, silt with sandy clay, sand with silty clay and clay soil. The mineral content of the soil mainly contains of quartz, kaolinite and illite. Other minerals also were observed such as maghemite, hematite, chlorite and calcite. The various minerals composition shows many types of parent rocks. Whereas the high clay minerals will affect the stability of soil slope due to high moisture-adsorption minerals and high plasticity index.