Int. J. Rock Mech. Min. Sci. & Geomech. Abstr. Vol. 14, pp. 161-162. Pergamon Press 1977.
Printed in Great Britain
Book Reviews
This issue marks the publication, for the first time in some years, of reviews of recently published books likely to be of interest to
readers of the Journal. It is hoped that book reviews will be published regularly in the future and, to this end. publishers, editors and
authors are invited to send copies of new books on appropriate subjects to the Editor-in-Chief who will distribute them to members
of the Editorial Board or other experts for review.
Principles of Engineering Geology--by P. B. Attewell
and I. W. Farmer. Chapman and Hall, London. 1976.
1045 pp., £25.00.
Because of the fact that no up-to-date standard reference or text-
book on engineering geology exists, the appearance of a major work
on the subject by two well-known contributors to this journal is
to be welcomed. However, for all its admirable qualities, the present
book may not prove to be the fundamental font of engineering geolo-
gical wisdom that so many readers will be seeking.
The difficulty as this engineer-reviewer sees it. lies in the very
definition of the term 'engineering geology'. The authors begin their
preface with a recognition of this difficulty, and go on to explain
why they have chosen to present the material they have rather than
adopt an alternative approach which "would have been to present
what might well have developed into a text on Quaternary and struc-
structural geology combined with a compendium of engineering geo-
logy case histories and supported by some very basic and undemand-
ing analysis". It may well be that many readers will think that a
book of this type would have been of more general value than the
book on ~hat many of us would describe as soil and rock mechanics
topics that the authors have produced.
The book contains chapters entitled "Composition of rocks' (29
pages); 'Rock particles and particle systems" (which is really a 74-page
chapter on soil mechanics taking us as far as critical state soil mech-
anics); 'Clays and clay shales' (68 pages); 'Rock as a material" (68
pages dealing with the strength, deformation and failure character-
istics of intact rock); 'Preferred orientation, symmetry concepts and
strength anisotropy of some rocks and clays' (55 pages); 'Rock dis-
continuity analysis' (112 pages); 'Site investigation" (133 pages);
'Groundwater' (72 pages); 'Stability of soil slopes' (88 pages); 'Rock
slope stability' (94 pages) and 'Ground improvement' (155 pages).
The reasons for the inclusion of much of this material are not easy
to understand, nor is the omission of certain other items. For
example, it is not at all clear why the engineering geology of under-
ground excavations in rock is discussed only through the inclusion
of a number of rock mass classification schemes for underground
works in the middle of the chapter on rock slope stability.
Despite his having this fundamental difference of opinion with the
authors about what should or should not be included in a book
on engineering geology, this reviewer found that the book contains
an abundance of well-assembled information, and is sure that it will
be a valuable reference work for geotechnical engineers and engineer-
ing geologists and students of those subjects for some time to come.
The fact that the list of references contains an astonishing 1238 items
testifies to the scope of the book and the amount of detailed informa-
tion that it contains.
Of course, it is inevitable that in a book of the length of the
present one, a number of errors of one type or another will inadver-
tently appear. The most significant error noted is in Hoek's slope
stability charts reproduced as Figs. 10.51a and 10.52b on pp. 804
and 806. Shortly after their original publication in 1970, Hock recog-
nised that these charts give factors of safety which, under certain
circumstances, can differ markedly (by 50°,/0or more) from those cal-
culated using the corresponding limiting equilibrium equations. The
charts were either abandoned or modified during the preparation
of Hock and Bray's Rock Slope Engineering published in 1974. The
reader is advised to use the methods outlined in this book rather
than the original charts now reproduced by AtteweU and Farmer.
Seismic Risk and Engineering Decisions--Edited by C.
Lomnitz and E. Rosenblueth. Elsevier, Amsterdam,
1976. 425 pp., U.S. 545.95.
This book, number 15 in Elsevier's Developments in Geotechnical
Engineering series, presents a collection of ten contributions by a
161
E.T.B.
number of highly respected experts in various aspects of seismology
and earthquake engineering. In addition to the editors" short intro-
ductory chapter, the book contains chapters entitled 'Earthquakes
and earthquake prediction'. 'Geological criteria for evaluating seismi-
city', 'Soil dynamics', "The physics of strong earthquake motion',
"Seismicity', 'Tsunamis', 'Structural response to earthquakes', 'Design',
and 'Seismological instrumentation'. Thus, the book is divided into
four parts dealing with the generation and characteristics of earth-
quakes, the assessment of seismicity from a probabilistic point of
~icvv. the engineering effects of earthquakes and approaches to
engineering design, and finally, modern seismic instrumentation.
Some of the chapters require little background knowledge beyond
some familiarity with basic geology and dynamics. Other chapters,
however, pre-suppose a sound knowledge of statistics and prob-
ability, while yet others require an advanced understanding of dyna-
mics for their assimilation. Because of this variability in the approach
and styles used by the individual authors, the book does not present
as cohesive a whole as the reader or presumably, the editors, might
have wished.
The social and economic significance of the subject and the difficul-
ties of making either short- or long-range predictions of earthquake
occurrences and their effect have been emphasised to this reviewer
by the day's news of the Roumanian earthquake disaster. It would
appear that the way ahead in this difficult area is through the devel-
opment and application of decision theory, risk analysis and the
other statistical methods that form the basis of the approach gener-
ally presented in this book; indeed, earthquake engineers are provid-
ing a lead for other civil and geotechnical engineers in this regard.
Because this subject is at an early stage in its development, and
because of the varying assumptions about the reader's background
knowledge made by the various contributors, this book cannot be
regarded as a definitive text on earthquake engineering, nor as a
suitable book for the beginner. However, it will be of value to experi-
enced specialists such as consulting engineers seeking a better under-
standing of the subject to guide decision making, and as a text for
postgraduate students.
Exploration for Rock Engineering. Volume 1 of the
Proceedings of the Symposium on Exploration for Rock
Engineering, Johannesburg, 1-5 November, 1976--
Edited by Z. T. Bieniawski, A. A. Balkema, Cape Town,
1976. 324 pp., £31.50.
This book is concerned with the practicalities of rock engineering:
which parameters are of importance to rock mechanics engineers,
how are these parameters determined and how are they utilized in
design and construction? These are the three fundamental questions
that must be asked by anyone involved with rock engineering in
either a civil or mining context.
In the preface, Dr. Bieniawski explains that the emphasis is placed
on rock mechanics investigations and excludes the usual geological
site explorations. To some extent, this is unfortunate because geologi-
cal and seismic aspects have been sacrificed in favour of 'after the
event' instrumentation which makes the title of the book rather mis-
leading.
Following a key-note address by Dr. Cook on methods of acquir-
ing and utilizing geotechnical data, there are nine sections covering
drilling techniques, testing in boreholes, core logging, rock mass clas-
sifications, in-situ tests on rock masses, principles of rock instrumen-
tation, instrumentation of civil structures, instrumentation of mining
structures and, finally, case studies. In each section, there is a main
paper summarising the state-of-the-art and recent development in
South Africa together with two to five supporting papers. The first
five sections are those directly concerned with exploration and use
of the information prior to construction.