TAN Siow Meng, Simon, Committee Member, Geotechnical Engineering Technical Division
1. Introduction water to form carbonic acid, which readily
Kuala Lumpur Limestone is well known for dissolves carbonate rocks. Karstic features its highly erratic karstic features. With the develop from a self-accelerating process of exception of Batu Caves, exposures of Kuala water flow along well-defined pathways such Lumpur Limestone are mainly found in tin as bedding planes, joints and faults. As the mining areas. Such exposures seldom exist water percolates downward under the force of today after the closure of the tin mines. Ex- gravity, it dissolves and enlarges the path- tin mining lands are covered with remnants ways. Enlargement of a pathway allows more of highly heterogeneous nature from slime to water flow which increases the dissolution sand. rate. As the enlarged pathway transmits more If the underlying karstic limestone bedrock water, it pirates drainage from the surround- is overlooked or not dealt with appropriately, ing rock mass. Over time, this process results it will pose great uncertainties and difficulties in very jagged appearance, sometimes dissect in foundation construction. In less fortunate vertically and deeply into the rock terrain as cases, adjacent properties are affected or seen in Fig. 6. buildings suffer damages or failures after completion.
2. Geology of Kuala Lumpur Area
Published geological maps of Kuala Lumpur area show that Kuala Lumpur Limestone Formation dominates the majority area of Fig. 2 Ex-tin mining area in Kuala Lumpur KL. A geological section through KL is (GSM unpublished) shown in Fig. 1. The limestone is estimated Most tin mine tenures expired in the early to be about 1,850m thick, overlying graphitic 80s. The common mining method was open schist known as Hawthornden Schist. The top cast and gravel pump. This method involved Fig. 4. Tin mining remnant of heterogeneous of the sequence is Kenny Hill formation excavation by big machines such as bucket nature (Chan & Hong 1986) which occupies the heartland of KL including wheels and navies. At confined places, such areas at KLCC and Bukit Bintang. as potholes and pinnacles, the sediments were first broken by water jet and washed down to a pool which was then pumped to flow down along a sluice built on a tall wooden framework called palong (Fig. 3), thus concentrating the heavy minerals including the tin ore cassiterite (Ayob 1965).
Fig. 1 Geological section through Kuala Lum-
pur (Yeap 1986). According to Gobbett & Hutchison (1973), Kuala Lumpur Limestone is Upper Silurian marble, finely crystalline grey to cream, thickly bedded, variably dolomitic rock. Banded marble, saccharoidal dolomite, and Fig. 3 Palong in an opencast tin mine in Fig. 5 Process of limestone dissolution (UCGS pure calcitic limestone also occur Segambut (Gobbett, 1973) 2000) The mining activities left behind numerous Water will continue to percolate downward 3. Tin Mining Activities ponds and remnants mainly consisting of until it reaches the water table, below which Tin mining activities in Kuala Lumpur started sand and clay slime, forming a highly hetero- all pore space is occupied by water. Since the in 1857 when the first mine was operated in geneous overburden materials over the lime- rock is saturated with water, water flow slows Ampang. Tin mining was rampant in the past stone as illustrated in Fig. 4. down and so does the dissolution rate. The and concentrated in the limestone area of water table fluctuates up and down as a result Kuala Lumpur as shown in Fig. 2. Note that 4. Karstic Features of seasonal change and creates a zone of most information concerning the tin mining 4.1 Development of Karsts preferential dissolution along the zone of industry of Selangor before the Second Karst topography in limestone is formed by a fluctuation. Over time, this process creates World War was lost or destroyed during the chemical dissolution process when ground- solution channels. war (Yin 1986), and as a result, it has not water circulates through the limestone as The development of subsurface karstic to- been possible to have a complete and accu- illustrated in Fig. 5. Carbon dioxide from the pography over limestone terrain is classified rate record of all the mining areas. atmosphere is fixed or converted in the soil in in five types as illustrated in Fig. 7 by Yin an aqueous state and combined with rain- (1986). although many limestone caverns have ex- usually partially filled or without in-fill. The perienced some roof collapse in the geologi- in-fills are usually slimy, having low N val- cal past. This is due to the very slow rate of ues when Standard Penetration Tests (SPT) dissolution in limestone. Moreover, the roof are conducted on them. of a cave is not dissolved aggressively unless Large forms of solution channels are found the groundwater flow is full. typically in dense non-porous limestone which is thick-bedded and well-jointed 4.3 Limestone Bedrock Profile (Gobbett 1965). Soft porous and poorly As shown in Fig. 1, limestone usually occurs jointed limestone does not provide a favour- at shallow depths of a few metres to less than able environment because groundwater flow 25m except in areas covered by the thick is not concentrated into particular channels. Kenny Hill formation where the limestone is The cross-sections of small limestone solu- Fig. 6 Originally flat limestone plateau dissected deeply by dissolution (Photo fr. Chng 1984) encountered as deep as 200m such as at the tion channels are more of arch as in Fig. 9 (b) Petronas Twin Towers (Azam et. al. 1996). to (f) rather than flat roof which is less stable Note that cliff-like drops in limestone pro- as in Fig. 9 (a) based on observation of Wil- file were encountered at the sites of Petronas ford (1964) for small cave passages in Penin- Twin Towers (Azam et. al. 1996), Pan Pacific sular and East Malaysia. Hotel (Mitchell, 1986) and Bistari Condo- minium (Hewitt & Gue 1996). The difference in bedrock levels varies from 70m to more than 100m within the sites. Yeap (1986) at- tributes such abrupt rock profile to fault zone and contact zone between limestone and other formations.
4.4 Steep depressions, potholes and deep
cut solution features On a flat limestone terrain, steep depressions can occur. Such a feature was encountered in Fig. 7 Evolution and development of limestone karst (Yin 1986) a deep excavation at a site near the junction of Jalan Cheras/Jalan Chan Sow Lin. The Fig.9 Typical cross sections of small cave pas- 4.2 Rate of Limestone Dissolution depression was about 27m deep. sages (Wilford 1964) Potholes as shown in Fig. 8 were exposed Due to vertically developed karsts as de- The dissolution of limestone is a very slow at an excavation site near Kg. Pandan Round- scribed earlier, it is possible that a borehole process compared to the human life span. The about. The biggest pothole measured 11m in drills through a limestone overhang before it dissolution rate is expressed in ka (one thou- diameter and 8m deep. Another pothole was re-enters the rock below. This rock free sec- sand year). suspected 150m away as detected by bore- tion can be misinterpreted as a cavity and a Tens of thousands of years is considered a holes supplemented by Mackintosh probing fairly big one! The materials from the rock reasonable time in Kaufmanns (2004) disso- tests. The potholes at Sg. Besi Tin Mines free section usually show properties similar lution kinetics model for limestone conduit observed by Ayob (1965) were 10m in di- to materials of the overburden soils above the development. Sowers (1996) quotes the rock ameter and 25m deep. Similar features are limestone bedrock. surface denudation rates compiled by described as The largest cavity encountered by the au- Jennings (1983) and White (1988) vary from well like thor was 13m (refers to vertical dimension 5mm to 200mm per ka. The maximum rate of holes by Yeap hereafter) as revealed by a borehole. The site 200mm per ka is expected for tropic climate (1986). Their is located on the western side of Jalan Sen- with an annual rainfall of 3000mm. sizes vary from tul/Lebuhraya Karak junction. The site occu- The literature review by Fatihah & Yeap 30m to 200m pies an area of 7.6 ha where a total of 38 (2002) shows limestone denudation rates of in diameter! boreholes were carried out. Another 5.2m 15 to 100 mm/ka in different parts of the cavity was encountered in another borehole world except Williams (1966) obtained val- Fig. 8 A pothole 40m away from the aforementioned one. ues range from 3-6300mm/ka in Ireland. Local research on the topic is limited. Fati- Deep dissections as shown in Fig. 6 are hah & Yeap (2002) conducted a research on common features. 4.6 Sinkholes It is not surprising that pile lengths vary Sinkhole refers to a depression on the ground the limestone dissolution rates in the Kinta significantly in limestone area. surface caused by dissolution of the lime- and Lenggong valleys. They left limestone stone near the surface or the collapse of an samples in running streams, stagnant pond 4.5 Solution Channels and Cavities underground cave. water and subaerial condition. The estimated It is unlikely that cavities exist in isolation in There were a number of sinkhole incidents limestone denudation rates for the three cases limestone. They are part of the solution chan- in Kuala Lumpur and the surrounding areas. were 369mm/ka, 224mm/ka and 134mm/ka nel system. Their encounters by soil investi- The most recent ones occurred near Jalan respectively. Exposing the limestone samples gation boreholes are commonly reported as Cheras (Sin Chew Daily 2004) and at Jalan in running streams, stagnant pond water and cavities locally. Tun Razak (China Press 2004), suspected subaerial condition is analogous of various Based on the authors experience, the ver- linked to an on going tunnel excavation. In conditions that may be experienced by lime- tical dimension of cavities encountered by 1995, a sinkhole measuring 3m diameter and stone. boreholes is seldom greater than 3m, similar 1.5m deep occurred at Jalan Lidcole (Fig. According to Sowers (1996), the collapses to observations by Ting (1986). Cavities are 10). The associated ground depression was of limestone cavern roofs should be very rare 20m by 25m in size (GESB 1995). The inci- dent coincided with borehole drilling in the nearest excavation was some 175m away. China Press, 29-04-2004 vicinity and there were construction activities Rainwater was suspected to cause extra Chng S. C., 1984, Geologi Kejuruteraan Batu- involving piling and excavation more than groundwater flow that encouraged migration kapur Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, BSc.(Hons) The- sis, Geology Department, UKM, Bangi, Selangor, 150m away. GESB 1995 also quotes a of fines in the soil into solution channels. Year 1983/84 ground depression at Jalan P. Ramlee in 1993 An obvious case of ground subsidence re- Fatihah, R & Yeap E. B. 2002, Estimating lime- which was 10 times the size of that at Jalan lated to groundwater extraction was reported stone dissolution rates in the Kinta and Lengong Lidcole. It coincided with bored piling activi- at Subang Hi-tech Park in 1998 (SSPG 1998). valleys using micro erosion meter: a preliminary ties in the locality. A sinkhole at Datuk Some 20 units of 1-1/2 storey linked shop study, GSM Annual Geological Conference 2002 Keramat was recorded in the geological map factories were affected. Ground subsided Geo-Environment Sdn Bhd (GESB), 1995, Re- by GSM (1995). significantly within a period of two months port On Investigation On Ground Subsidence At Chng (1984) lists a few sinkhole incidents during the illegal pumping of groundwater at Persiaran Lidcol, Nov., 1995, Job 31121 Geological Survey Malaysia, 1995, Geological as reported in the newspapers: In 1968, 9 an adjacent vacant land. When the pumping map of Kuala Lumpur and surrounding areas, people were killed due to the collapse of a was stopped, the rate of building settlement Wilayah Persekutuan Series L8010, Part of Sheet block of low-cost flat at Jalan Raja Laut be- reduced significantly. A borehole sunk during 94a, 94b, 94d, 94e & 94f, Digital process 1995 lieved to be due to failure of foundation on the investigation of the incident developed Gobbett, D.J., 1965, The formation of limestone weak limestone bedrock; In 1981, 24 houses into a small sinkhole. caves in Malaya, Malaya Nature Journal, 19(1): pp. on an ex-mining land were demolished due to Sinkholes occasionally triggered by soil 4 12. sinking and cracks at Taman Seri Serdang; In investigation boreholes in ex-mining lands Gobbett, D.J. & Hutchison, C.S. 1973, Geology 1983, a sinkhole at KL-Seremban Highway where the soil covers over limestone are thin. of the Malay Peninsula, New York: Wiley- Interscience. near UPM caused a partial closure of the Hewitt, P. & Gue, S. S., Piled raft foundation in highway; In 1983, 16 units of PKNS houses 5. Conclusion a weathered sedimentary formation, Kuala Lum- on ex-mining land were demolished due to Like limestone in other parts of the world, pur, Malaysia, 12th SEAGC, 6-19 May, 1996, significant foundation settlement; In 1984, 10 erratic karst topography commonly found in Kuala Lumpur, p367-372. units of double-storey houses in Taman Kuala Lumpur Limestone is formed by a Kaderabek, T. J., Reynolds, R. T., 1981, Miami Cheras Indah were seriously damaged due to chemical dissolution process. The dissolution limestone foundation design and construction, J. sinkholes. of limestone is a very slow process compared Geot. Tech. Engr. Div. GT7, Jul. 1981, pp. 859 - to human life span. Kaufmann G., 2004, Karst system modelling, Course lecture, Inst. of Geophysics, Univ. of Goet- The karsts consist of deep dissections, pot- tingen, Gemany, http://www.uni-geophys.gwdg.de/ holes, steep depressions and solution chan- ~gkaufman/work/karst/index.html, 16-09-2004 nels, resulting in erratic limestone rock bed- Mining Department, 1980-1982, Ex-mining rock profile that posts great uncertainties and Land Map in Kuala Lumpur and Adjacent Area, challenges in foundation construction. unpublished. Sinkholes are usually triggered by con- Mitchell, J. M., 1986 Foundation for the Pan Pa- struction activities due to: loss of fines cific Hotel on pinncled and cavernous limestone, through groundwater seepage, lowering of Foundation Problems in Limestone Areas of Penin- sular Malaysia, Geot. Tech. Div. IEM. groundwater table, imposing of additional Sin Chew Daily 3-04-2004 loads, vibrations, direct punching of cavity Sowers, G. F. 1996, Buildings on sinkholes, de- Fig. 10 A sinkhole at Jalan Lidcole (GESB 1995) cover by boreholes or piling. Limestone cov- sign and construction of foundations in Karst ter- Sinkholes have also occurred in Jinjang ered by thin soils is more susceptible to oc- rain, ASCE, New York p26 and Kepong. In Kuala Lumpur, a 10m diame- currences of sinkholes. SSP Geotechnics Sdn Bhd (SSPG), 1998, Geo- ter sinkhole developed suddenly at the build- Abrupt drop in limestone profile of 60m to technical Investigation Report on Cracks and Set- more than 100m have been observed within tlement of Factory Lots at Subang Hi-tech Park ing site during pile driving for the Campbell (Subang Square), Selangor, Nov. 1998, Job 31259. Shopping Centre in 1972 (Chan & Hong some building sites located near contact Ting, W. H., 1986, Foundation problems in 1986). Sinkhole risks associated with bored zones or fault zones. limestone areas, Foundation Problems in Lime- piling work are highlighted in Bauer (2004). stone Areas of Peninsular Malaysia, Geot. Tech. Almost all sinkholes are triggered by con- Acknowledgement Div., IEM. struction activities. The main triggering fac- The author wishes to thank his col- U.S.Geological Survey (USGS), 2002, Coastal tors are lowering of groundwater table, loss leagues and Assoc. Prof. B. K. Tan for their and Marine Geology Program web site, Jan 18 2002, http://coastal.er.usgs.gov/publications/ofr/ of fines through groundwater seepage, impos- kind assistance. 00180/intro/karst.html ing of additional loads and vibrations. In Wilford, G.E. 1964, The geology of Sarawak some occasions, it is due to direct punching References and Sabah Caves: 12 16, Bull. 6, Geol. Survey of cavity cover by borehole or piling activi- Azam T., Hashim H., & Ibrahim, R., 1996, Dept. Borneo Region, Malaysia. ties. Foundation design for Petronas Twin Towers at Willbourn E.S., 1921, An Account of The Geol- Locations where overburdens are thin are Kuala Lumpur City Centre, 12th SEAGC, 6-19 ogy and Mining Industries of South Selangor and more susceptible to occurrences of sinkholes May, 1996, Kuala Lumpur, p485-492 Negri Sembilan, Geological Department, Federated due to lack of buffer and bridging effect. Ayob, M., 1965, Study in bedrock geology and Malay States. sedimentology of Quaternary sediments at sungai Yeap E.B., 1986, Irregular Topography of The For the recent sinkholes occurred near Jalan besi tin mines, Selangor, BSc.(Hons.) Thesis, Ge- Subsurface Carbonate Bedrock in The Kuala Lum- Tun Razak and Jalan Cheras, the overburden pur Area, Foundation Problems in Limestone Areas ology Department, Univ. Malaya was around 3.5m thick and holes were cre- Bauer 2004, Malaysia - Kuala Lumpur, infra- of Peninsular Malaysia, Geot. Tech. Div., IEM. ated. Where overburden thickness increased structure blues, http://www.bauer.de/ Yin E.H., 1986, Geology and Mineral Resources to about 10m, there were ground depressions dt/spezialtiefbau/rojekte/ausland/proj_malaysia02.h of Kuala Lumpur-Klang Valley (Draft), Geological but no hole was formed. The incident oc- tm, accessed on 17-04-04 Survey Malaysia District Memoir. curred after frequent rainfalls over a short Chan S. F. & Hong, L. E., 1986, Pile foundation period of time. There was lack of direct evi- in limestone areas of Malaysia, Foundation Prob- dence of groundwater table lowering. The lems in Limestone Areas of Peninsular Malaysia, Geot. Tech. Div., IEM
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