GEOL 3321 Geology for Engineers
Review Guide for Exam #2
Exam Day: Monday, March 12, 2001
Chapter 6 – Rock Properties
What is the rock strength? What rock properties do uniaxial and triaxial tests measure? What
do Young’s modulus and Poisson’s ratio tell us about a rock? How strong are various kinds of
rocks? How are Mohr’s circle diagrams used to determine shear strength, cohesion and regions
of stability/failure?
Chapter 7 – Soils
What do soil texture and cohesiveness mean? How does a well-graded soil differ from a poorly
graded soil? What are the void ratio, porosity, saturation and water content of a soil? What are
Atterberg limits? What is the plasticity index? How do clays influence the behavior of a soil?
How can you determine the strength of a soil?
Chapter 8 – Weathering
What is the difference between chemical and mechanical weathering? What are some of the
causes of mechanical weathering? What important processes take place during chemical
weathering? What is the Goldrich stability series? What are the 3 important parts of a soil
profile? What factors influence soil development? How does the parent material influence the
type of clays that are formed in a soil? How does climate influence soil development? What
engineering problems may soils produce?
Material to Review from Exam I:
Chapter 2 - Minerals
What is a mineral? What kinds of tests might a geologist use to identify a mineral in the field?
Are any of these tests useful for an engineer? What is the difference between ionic and covalent
bonds? What are the building blocks of silicates? What kinds of silicates form and how do they
differ? What are sulfates, sulfides, oxides, halides and carbonates? Where might we find these
types of minerals around El Paso? Which minerals are going to cause difficulties when we build
on them?
Laboratory Topics:
If you were given a rock sample what observations could you make about it that would allow
you to determine if it were igneous, sedimentary, or metamorphic? Drawing cross-sections with
vertical exaggeration.
