The geotechnical characteristics of an ice-thrust mudstone, Wabamun Lake area, Alberta

Abstract

This first detailed report of the geotechnical characteristics of ice-thrust soft rock examines Upper Cretaceous, once heavily overconsolidated mudstones in the Highvale coal mine, Alberta. The fissured and brecciated sample from an ice-thrust shear zone in the mine behaves as a lightly overconsolidated sediment in laboratory tests and shows a non-brittle mode of shear deformation with a maximum shear strength close to residual. This behaviour is due to weathering and glaciotectonic deformation, which have jointed, sheared, and remoulded the mudstone, thus eliminating the fabric formed by overconsolidation.In the ice-thrust mudstone, platy clay minerals dominate and have been grouped into aggregations or shear-remoulded matrices. The strength of the brecciated portion of the mudstone ranges from peak to residual. The strength along principal displacement shears is at or close to residual, as back analysis of a slope failure shows. Key words: ice-thrust shear zone, glaciotectonic deformation, consolidation, nonbrittle deformation, principal displacement shears, shear strength.