Quick clay, also known as Leda clay and Champlain Sea clay in
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
, is any of several distinctively sensitive
glaciomarine clays found in Canada, Norway, Russia, Sweden, Finland, the United States and other locations around the world.
The clay is so unstable that when a mass of quick clay is subjected to sufficient stress, the material behavior may drastically
change
Change or Changing may refer to:
Alteration
* Impermanence, a difference in a state of affairs at different points in time
* Menopause, also referred to as "the change", the permanent cessation of the menstrual period
* Metamorphosis, or change, ...
from that of a particulate material to that of a watery fluid.
Landslide
Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated grade (slope), slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of ...
s occur because of the sudden
soil liquefaction
Soil liquefaction occurs when a cohesionless saturated or partially saturated soil substantially loses strength and stiffness in response to an applied stress such as shaking during an earthquake or other sudden change in stress condition, in ...
caused by external sollicitations such as
vibration
Vibration is a mechanical phenomenon whereby oscillations occur about an equilibrium point. The word comes from Latin ''vibrationem'' ("shaking, brandishing"). The oscillations may be periodic function, periodic, such as the motion of a pendulum ...
s induced by an
earthquake
An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from ...
, or massive
rainfall
Rain is water droplets that have condensed from atmospheric water vapor and then fall under gravity. Rain is a major component of the water cycle and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the Earth. It provides water f ...
s.
Quick clay main deposits
Quick clay is found only in countries close to the
north pole
The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distinguish from the Mag ...
, such as
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
;
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
;
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
;
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
; and
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
; and in
Alaska
Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...
,
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
; since they were glaciated during the
Pleistocene epoch
The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...
. In Canada, the clay is associated primarily with the Pleistocene-era
Champlain Sea
The Champlain Sea (french: Mer de Champlain) was a prehistoric inlet of the Atlantic Ocean into the North American continent, created by the retreating ice sheets during the closure of the last glacial period. The inlet once included lands in ...
, in the modern
Ottawa Valley
The Ottawa Valley is the valley of the Ottawa River, along the boundary between Eastern Ontario and the Outaouais, Quebec, Canada. The valley is the transition between the Saint Lawrence Lowlands and the Canadian Shield. Because of the surroundi ...
, the
St. Lawrence Valley
The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connecting ...
, and the
Saguenay River
__NOTOC__
The Saguenay River () is a major river of Quebec, Canada.
It drains Lac Saint-Jean in the Laurentian Highlands, leaving at Alma and running east; the city of Saguenay is located on the river. It drains into the Saint Lawrence River. T ...
regions.
Quick clay has been the underlying cause of many deadly
landslide
Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated grade (slope), slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of ...
s. In Canada alone, it has been associated with more than 250 mapped landslides. Some of these are ancient, and may have been triggered by earthquakes.
Clay colloids stability
Quick clay has a remolded strength which is much less than its strength upon initial loading. This is caused by its highly unstable clay particle structure.
Quick clay is originally deposited in a marine environment. Clay mineral particles are always negatively charged because of the presence of permanent negative charges and pH dependent charges at their surface. Because of the need to respect electro-neutrality and a
net zero
Carbon neutrality is a state of net-zero carbon dioxide emissions. This can be achieved by balancing emissions of carbon dioxide with its removal (often through carbon offsetting) or by eliminating emissions from society (the transition to the " ...
electrical charge balance, these negative electrical charges are always compensated by the positive charges born by
cations
An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge.
The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by convent ...
(such as
Na+) adsorbed onto the surface of the clay, or present in the clay pore water.
Exchangeable cations are present in the clay minerals interlayers and on the external basal planes of clay platelets. Cations also compensate the negative charges on the clay particle edges caused by the
protolysis
In computer science, ACID ( atomicity, consistency, isolation, durability) is a set of properties of database transactions intended to guarantee data validity despite errors, power failures, and other mishaps. In the context of databases, a sequ ...
of
silanol
A silanol is a functional group in silicon chemistry with the connectivity Si–O–H. It is related to the hydroxy functional group (C–O–H) found in all alcohols. Silanols are often invoked as intermediates in organosilicon c ...
and aluminol groups (
pH dependent charges). So, clay platelets are always surrounded by an
electrical double layer
A double layer (DL, also called an electrical double layer, EDL) is a structure that appears on the surface of an object when it is exposed to a fluid. The object might be a solid particle, a gas bubble, a liquid droplet, or a porous body. The D ...
(EDL), or diffuse double layer (DDL).
The thickness of EDL depends on the
salinity
Salinity () is the saltiness or amount of salt dissolved in a body of water, called saline water (see also soil salinity). It is usually measured in g/L or g/kg (grams of salt per liter/kilogram of water; the latter is dimensionless and equal ...
of water. Under salty conditions (at high
ionic strength
The ionic strength of a solution is a measure of the concentration of ions in that solution. Ionic compounds, when dissolved in water, dissociate into ions. The total electrolyte concentration in solution will affect important properties such as ...
) EDL is compressed (or said to be collapsed). It facilitates the aggregation of clay platelets which
flocculate
Flocculation, in the field of chemistry, is a process by which colloidal particles come out of suspension to sediment under the form of floc or flake, either spontaneously or due to the addition of a clarifying agent. The action differs from p ...
and stick together in a more stable aggregates structure. After the marine clay deposit is
uplifted
''Uplifted'' is the second studio album by Nigerian singer Flavour N'abania. It was released on July 20, 2010, by Obaino Music and 2nite Entertainment. The album features guest appearances from Jay Dey, Oloye, Stormrex, Waga Gee, Asemstone, M-Jay, ...
and is no longer exposed to salt water conditions,
rain
Rain is water droplets that have condensed from atmospheric water vapor and then fall under gravity. Rain is a major component of the water cycle and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the Earth. It provides water f ...
water can slowly
infiltrate the poorly compacted clay layer and the excess of NaCl present in
seawater
Seawater, or salt water, is water from a sea or ocean. On average, seawater in the world's oceans has a salinity of about 3.5% (35 g/L, 35 ppt, 600 mM). This means that every kilogram (roughly one liter by volume) of seawater has appro ...
can also
diffuse
Diffusion is the net movement of anything (for example, atoms, ions, molecules, energy) generally from a region of higher concentration to a region of lower concentration. Diffusion is driven by a gradient in Gibbs free energy or chemical p ...
out of the clay. As a result, the EDL is less compressed and can expand. It results in a stronger electrostatic repulsion between negatively charged clay platelets which can more easily become dispersed and form stable
suspension
Suspension or suspended may refer to:
Science and engineering
* Suspension (topology), in mathematics
* Suspension (dynamical systems), in mathematics
* Suspension of a ring, in mathematics
* Suspension (chemistry), small solid particles suspend ...
s in water (
peptization Peptization or deflocculation is the process of converting precipitate into colloid by shaking it with a suitable electrolyte called peptizing agent.
This is particularly important in colloid chemistry or for precipitation reactions in an aqueous s ...
phenomenon). The effect leads to a destabilization of the clay aggregates structure.
In case of insufficient mechanical
compaction of the clay layer, and with a
shear stress
Shear stress, often denoted by (Greek: tau), is the component of stress coplanar with a material cross section. It arises from the shear force, the component of force vector parallel to the material cross section. ''Normal stress'', on the ot ...
, the weaker EDL compression by the salts in the quick clay results in clay particle
repulsion and leads to their realignment in a structure that is weaker and unstable. Quick clay regains
strength
Strength may refer to:
Physical strength
*Physical strength, as in people or animals
* Hysterical strength, extreme strength occurring when people are in life-and-death situations
*Superhuman strength, great physical strength far above human c ...
rapidly when salt is again added (compression of the EDL), which allows clay particles to restore their
cohesion with one another.
Formation of quick clay
At the height of the past glaciation (about 20,000 years ago), the land was 'pushed' down by the weight of the ice (
isostatic depression
Isostatic depression is the sinking of large parts of the Earth's crust into the asthenosphere caused by a heavy weight placed on the Earth's surface, often glacial ice during continental glaciation. Isostatic depression and isostatic rebound oc ...
). All of the ground-up rock was deposited in the surrounding ocean, which had penetrated significantly inland. The loose deposition of the silt and clay particles in the marine environment, allowed an unusual
flocculation
Flocculation, in the field of chemistry, is a process by which colloidal particles come out of suspension to sediment under the form of floc or flake, either spontaneously or due to the addition of a clarifying agent. The action differs from pr ...
to take place. Essentially, this formed a strongly bonded soil skeleton, which was 'glued' by highly mobile sea-salt ions.
At this point, there was only the formation of very strong
marine clay
Marine clay is a type of clay found in coastal regions around the world. In the northern, deglaciated regions, it can sometimes be quick clay, which is notorious for being involved in landslides.
Marine clay is a particle of soil that is dedica ...
, which is found all over the world and highly stable, but with its own unique geotechnical problems. When the glaciers retreated, the land mass rose (
post-glacial rebound
Post-glacial rebound (also called isostatic rebound or crustal rebound) is the rise of land masses after the removal of the huge weight of ice sheets during the last glacial period, which had caused isostatic depression. Post-glacial rebound a ...
), the clay was exposed, and formed the soil mass for new vegetation. The rainwater in these northern countries was quite aggressive to these clays, perhaps because it was softer (containing less calcium), or the higher silt content allowed more rainwater and snowmelt to penetrate. The final result was that the ionic 'glue' of the clay was weakened, to give a weak, loose soil skeleton, enclosing significant amounts of water (high sensitivity with high moisture content).
Quick clay deposits are rarely located directly at the ground surface, but are typically covered by a normal layer of topsoil. While this topsoil can absorb most normal stresses, such as normal rainfall or a modest earth tremor, a shock that exceeds the capacity of the topsoil layer — such as a larger earthquake, a large mass added near a slope, or an abnormal rainfall which leaves the topsoil fully saturated so that additional water has nowhere to
permeate
In physics and engineering, permeation (also called imbuing) is the penetration of a permeate (a fluid such as a liquid, gas, or vapor) through a solid. It is directly related to the concentration gradient of the permeate, a material's intrins ...
except into the clay — can disturb the clay and initiate the process of liquefaction.
Disasters
Because the clay layer is typically covered with topsoil, a location which is vulnerable to a quick clay landslide is usually identifiable only by
soil test
Soil test may refer to one or more of a wide variety of soil analysis conducted for one of several possible reasons. Possibly the most widely conducted soil tests are those done to estimate the plant-available concentrations of plant nutrients, i ...
ing, and is rarely obvious to a casual observer. Thus human settlements and transportation links have often been built on or near clay deposits, resulting in a number of notable catastrophes:
* In 1702, a landslide destroyed almost all traces of the medieval town
Sarpsborg
Sarpsborg ( or ), historically Borg, is a city and municipality in Viken county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Sarpsborg.
Sarpsborg is part of the fifth largest urban area in Norway when paired with neigh ...
in the
Viken county
Viken may refer to:
*Viken, Scandinavia, a historical region
*Viken (county), a Norwegian county established in 2020
*Viken, Sweden, a bimunicipal locality in Skåne County, Sweden
*Viken (lake), a lake in Sweden, part of the part of the Göta cana ...
in
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
. 15 people and 200 animals were killed.
* On 19 May 1893, a landslide in
Verdal
Verdal is a municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. It is part of the Innherad region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Verdalsøra. Some villages in the municipality include Forbregd/Lein, Lysthaugen, Stiklest ...
, Norway, killed 116 people and destroyed 105 farms. It left a crater several kilometers in diameter.
* The most disastrous such landslide to affect North America occurred in 1908, when a slide into the frozen
Du Lièvre River propelled a wave of ice-filled water into
Notre-Dame-de-la-Salette,
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
, causing the loss of 33 lives and the destruction of 12 homes.
* In 1955, a landslide affected part of the downtown of
Nicolet, Quebec, causing $10 million in damages.
*In 1957, a large quick-clay landslide occurred in
Lilla Edet
Lilla Edet is a locality and the seat of Lilla Edet Municipality in Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It had 4,862 inhabitants in 2010.
Lilla Edet was the smallest of three settlements that were burnt down in Sweden on 25 June 1888. The wooden to ...
, by the
Göta River
Göta is a Swedish given name, which is the female equivalent of Göte. It may refer to:
*Göta Ljungberg (1893–1955), Swedish singer
*Göta Pettersson (1926–1993), Swedish gymnast
Other uses
*Göta, Sweden
*Göta älv, a river in Sweden
*G ...
, in southwestern
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
. A large part of a factory slid into the river, causing a thirty meter reduction in the river width. The earth mass coming into the river produced an approximately six meter high wave.
*On March 27, 1964, parts of Anchorage, Alaska built on sandy bluffs overlying "
Bootlegger Cove clay
Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4).
Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...
" near
Cook Inlet
Cook Inlet ( tfn, Tikahtnu; Sugpiaq: ''Cungaaciq'') stretches from the Gulf of Alaska to Anchorage in south-central Alaska. Cook Inlet branches into the Knik Arm and Turnagain Arm at its northern end, almost surrounding Anchorage. On its sou ...
, most notably the Turnagain neighborhood, suffered
landslide
Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated grade (slope), slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of ...
damage during the
1964 Alaska Earthquake
The 1964 Alaskan earthquake, also known as the Great Alaskan earthquake and Good Friday earthquake, occurred at 5:36 PM AKST on Good Friday, March 27. . The neighborhood lost 75 houses in the landslide, and the destroyed area has since been turned into
Earthquake Park.
* On 4 May 1971, 31 lives were lost when 40 homes were swallowed in a retrogressive flowslide in
Saint-Jean-Vianney, Quebec
Saint-Jean-Vianney was a village in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region of Quebec, which was abandoned after it was partially destroyed in a landslide on May 4, 1971.
History
Saint-Jean-Vianney was originally created as a parish municipality in 1 ...
,
resulting in the relocation of the entire town when the government declared the area uninhabitable due to the presence of Leda clay. The event at Saint-Jean-Vianney contributed to the abandonment of the town of
Lemieux, Ontario
Lemieux is a ghost town in the Canadian province of Ontario, which was located on the shore of the South Nation River in the Prescott and Russell County township of South Plantagenet. The community was abandoned over a two-year period from 1989 ...
, in 1991, after a 1989 study showed it was also located on the same type of clay along the
South Nation River
The South Nation River is a river in Eastern Ontario, Canada. It springs from forests and marshes located north of Brockville and it flows northeast to empty into the Ottawa River north of Plantagenet. Shows the river's course highlighted on a t ...
. In 1993, those findings were borne out when the town's abandoned main street was swallowed by a massive 17-
hectare
The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is a ...
landslide.
* On November 30, 1977, the
Tuve landslide
The Tuve landslide was a large landslide in Tuve, Gothenburg, Sweden on November 30, 1977. Some 67 houses were destroyed, killing 9, injuring about 60 and making around 600 people homeless. The slide began at 16.05 and lasted 5–6 minutes. The ...
in western
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
killed 9 people and destroyed 67 houses.
* Another famous flow of quick clay at
Rissa, Norway
Rissa is a former municipality in the old Sør-Trøndelag county in Norway in the Fosen region. The municipality existed from 1860 until its dissolution on 1 January 2018 when it became part of the municipality of Indre Fosen in Trøndelag coun ...
, in 1978 caused about 33 hectares (82 acres) of farmland to liquefy and flow into the lake
Botn over a few hours, with the loss of one life. The Rissa slide was well recorded by local citizens and a documentary film was made about it in 1981.
* On 11 May 2010, quick clay took the lives of a family living in
Saint-Jude,
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
, when the land their house was built on suddenly tumbled down toward the Salvail River. The landslide was so sudden that the family members died where they sat; they had been watching an ice hockey game on television. The slide took out a portion of rural road which took a year to reinstate.
* On 2 February 2015, a landslide collapsed a pillar on the
Skjeggestad Bridge in South-East
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
. The landslide was caused by nearby
earthworks
Earthworks may refer to:
Construction
*Earthworks (archaeology), human-made constructions that modify the land contour
* Earthworks (engineering), civil engineering works created by moving or processing quantities of soil
*Earthworks (military), m ...
.
* On 3 June 2020, eight buildings were swept into the sea by a landslide in
Kråkneset in the
Alta municipality in
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
. The landslide was filmed by a resident. There were no casualties, and a dog was rescued from the sea.
* On 30 December 2020, part of a housing area was
swept away by a landslide in
Ask
Ask is the active verb for a direct question.
Ask may also refer to:
Places
* Ask, Akershus, a village in Gjerdrum municipality, Viken county, Norway
* Ask, Buskerud, a village in Ringerike municipality, Viken county, Norway
* Ask, Vestland, a ...
in the
Gjerdrum
Gjerdrum () is a municipality in Akershus in Viken county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Romerike.
Gjerdrum borders the municipalities of Nannestad, Nittedal, and Ullensaker, and Lillestrøm. The administrative centre of the m ...
municipality in
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
, 25 km (15 miles) north-east of the capital
Oslo
Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...
.
A 300 m × 700 m (985 ft × 2300 ft) quick clay landslide occurred wrecking many houses and killing eight adults and two children.
The instability of the ground and poor weather still hamper the search for survivors. More than 1000 persons are also being evacuated from the village.
These landslides are
retrogressive, meaning they usually start at
water
Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as a ...
, and progress upwards at slow walking speed, although particularly deep quick clay layers on sloped regions may collapse much more rapidly, or in very large chunks that can slide at great speed due to the liquid nature of the disturbed clay. They have been known to penetrate kilometers inland, and consume everything in their path.
In modern times, areas known to have quick clay deposits are commonly tested in advance of any major human development. It is not always possible to entirely avoid building on a quick clay site, although modern engineering techniques have found technical precautions which can be taken to mitigate the risk of disaster. For example, when
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
's
Highway 416 had to pass through a quick clay deposit near
Nepean
Nepean may refer to:
Places Australia
*Nepean Bay, a bay in South Australia,
**Nepean Bay Conservation Park, a protected area in South Australia,
**Nepean Bay, South Australia, a locality
*Nepean Highway, Victoria
*Nepean Island (Norfolk Island) ...
, lighter fill materials such as
polystyrene
Polystyrene (PS) is a synthetic polymer made from monomers of the aromatic hydrocarbon styrene. Polystyrene can be solid or foamed. General-purpose polystyrene is clear, hard, and brittle. It is an inexpensive resin per unit weight. It is a ...
were used for the road bed, vertical
wick drain
Geocomposite is a composition / combination of two or more geosynthetic materials to perform multiple number of geosynthetic functions for specific civil engineering application(s) the purpose of providing this composition is to minimize the app ...
s were inserted along the route and
groundwater
Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidate ...
cutoff walls were built under the highway to limit water infiltration into the clay.
"Conquering the Leda clay"
, Ontario Ministry of Transportation
The Ministry of Transportation (MTO) is the provincial ministry of the Government of Ontario that is responsible for transport infrastructure and related law in Ontario. The ministry traces its roots back over a century to the 1890s, when the pro ...
.
See also
* Clay chemistry
* Clay-water interaction
* Critical state soil mechanics
Critical state soil mechanics is the area of soil mechanics that encompasses the conceptual models that represent the mechanical behavior of saturated remolded soils based on the ''Critical State'' concept.
Formulation
The Critical State concept ...
* DLVO theory
The DLVO theory (named after Boris Derjaguin and Lev Landau, Evert Verwey and Theodoor Overbeek) explains the aggregation of aqueous dispersions quantitatively and describes the force between charged surfaces interacting through a liquid medium ...
, model for aggregation of aqueous dispersions
* Effective stress
The effective stress can be defined as the stress, depending on the applied tension \boldsymbol_ and pore pressure p, which controls the strain or strength behaviour of soil and rock (or a generic porous body) for whatever pore pressure value or, ...
* Electrical double layer
A double layer (DL, also called an electrical double layer, EDL) is a structure that appears on the surface of an object when it is exposed to a fluid. The object might be a solid particle, a gas bubble, a liquid droplet, or a porous body. The D ...
, (EDL)
* Geomechanics
Geomechanics (from the Greek prefix ''geo-'' meaning "earth"; and "mechanics") is the study of the mechanical state of the earth's crust and the processes occurring in it under the influence of natural physical factors. It involves the study of th ...
* Interface and colloid science
Interface and colloid science is an interdisciplinary intersection of branches of chemistry, physics, nanoscience and other fields dealing with colloids, heterogeneous systems consisting of a mechanical mixture of particles between 1 nm and ...
* Non-Newtonian fluid
A non-Newtonian fluid is a fluid that does not follow Newton's law of viscosity, i.e., constant viscosity independent of stress. In non-Newtonian fluids, viscosity can change when under force to either more liquid or more solid. Ketchup, for exa ...
* Quicksand
Quicksand is a colloid
A colloid is a mixture in which one substance consisting of microscopically dispersed insoluble particles is suspended throughout another substance. Some definitions specify that the particles must be dispersed in a ...
* Screening effect
In physics, screening is the damping of electric fields caused by the presence of mobile charge carriers. It is an important part of the behavior of charge-carrying fluids, such as ionized gases (classical plasmas), electrolytes, and charge c ...
* Shear strength (soil)
Shear strength is a term used in soil mechanics to describe the magnitude of the shear stress that a soil can sustain. The shear resistance of soil is a result of friction and interlocking of particles, and possibly cementation or bonding of par ...
* Shielding effect
In chemistry, the shielding effect sometimes referred to as atomic shielding or electron shielding describes the attraction between an electron and the nucleus in any atom with more than one electron. The shielding effect can be defined as a re ...
* Terzaghi's principle
Terzaghi's Principle states that when stress is applied to a porous material, it is opposed by the fluid pressure filling the pores in the material.
Karl von Terzaghi's introduced the idea in a series of papers in the 1920s based on his examinatio ...
* Urban Search and Rescue
Urban search and rescue (abbreviated as USAR or US&R) is a type of technical rescue operation that involves the location, extrication, and initial medical stabilization of victims trapped in an urban area, namely structural collapse due to natu ...
In popular culture
* The 1967 novel ''Landslide
Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated grade (slope), slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of ...
'' by Desmond Bagley
Desmond Bagley (29 October 1923 – 12 April 1983) was an English journalist and novelist known mainly for a series of bestselling thrillers. He and fellow British writers such as Hammond Innes and Alistair MacLean set conventions for the genre: ...
, tells the story of a quick-clay landslide in Canada. The book was also adapted into a 1992 television film by the same name, directed by Jean-Claude Lord
Jean-Claude Lord (6 June 1943 – 15 January 2022) was a Canadian film director and screenwriter. He was one of the most commercial of the Québécois directors in the 1970s, aiming his feature films at a mass audience and dealing with political ...
, and starring Anthony Edwards.
References
{{reflist, 30em
External links
Rissa Landslide
by University of Washington: short synopsis with link to video clips
Clay
Colloidal chemistry
Geological hazards
Glacial deposits
Landslides
Sediments
Soil mechanics
Types of soil