Soil and Rock Description in Engineering Practice

Abstract

Soil and Rock Description in Engineering Practice was published in 2010 in order to provide practicing geotechnical consultants with comprehensive “soup to nuts” guidance on the description of geomaterials, as well as the corresponding historical context for the development of reliable descriptive standards. As Norbury so correctly points out on numerous occasions, we the geotechnical community have suffered from being fractured (pun intended) in our approach to the field description of geomaterials. As quoted in the text, “a site investigation lives and dies by its field logs”! This reference book is 283 pages in length and includes a total of 17 chapters. Norbury provides numerous references throughout the book, and the text greatly benefits from Norbury's copious use of visual aids, specifically, embedded tables, sketches, and annotated photographs. The book also includes an appendix with example pro forma field data collection sheets for test pits, soil borings, rock core logs, and for rock outcrop mapping. Chapter 1 is an introduction to the details covered throughout the book and a general discussion of the reason it is important that we obtain reliable and defensible field descriptions for earth materials encountered during site investigations. The chapter would benefit from a few sentences on the inherent risk in the broader field of geotechnics, and the subsequent liabilities that can result from inadequate and non-defensible field descriptions. Chapter 2 delves into the historical context of standardization as it relates to the field description of geomaterials. Norbury describes the history of codification in the United Kingdom and the evolution of descriptive standards from the pre-1970 period through present, including the more universally accepted standards set forth by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Interestingly enough, the period between 1970 and 1981 was marked by a realization that existing British Standards (BS) at the time were …