Definition of Geological Terms

Rock Material or Intact Rock: Consolidated and

cemented assemblage of mineral particles which form the intact
blocks between discontinuities in the rock mass.

Rock Mass: In-situ rocks which has been rendered

discontinuous by joints, faults, bedding planes. Slope failure in a
rock mass is generally associated with movement on these
discontinuity surfaces.

Waste Rock or Broken Rock: Rock mass which has

been disturbed by some mechanical agency such as blasting or
crushing so that the interlocking nature of the in-situ rock has
been destroyed.

Discontinuities or Weakness Planes: Structural

features which separates intact rock blocks within a rock mass.
These are the structural weakness plane upon which movement
can take place. e.g. Joints, faults, bedding planes, cleavage,
tension joints and shear joints.

Major Discontinuities: Continuous planar structural

features such as faults which may be so weak, as compared to
 Kinematic Analysis
Reconstruction of movements that occurred
during formation and deformation of rocks.

Deformation
Earth is acted upon by forces that tend to
Displace and distort the rocks within that region.

These forces arise from:

•Weight of overlying rocks

•Large scale motion of adjacent materials
•Gravity

These forces may be: short term or long term

Deformation may be temporary or permanent

depending on physical and chemical factors,
e.g.:
Temperature, hydrostatic pressure, pressure of
pore fluid, the rate at which the deformation
forces are applied, the rate at which deformation
Proceeds, and the composition of the rocks.
 Rigid Body Movements

Translation
• all points in a body move along parallel
paths, e.g. sliding book on desk
• sliding occurs on a discontinuity, e.g. fault,
bedding plane, desk top
• describe translation by a displacement
vector with components of:
– distance of transport (meters etc)
– direction of transport (plunge and azimuth)
– sense of transport (movement towards...)
Rotation
– rigid body rotation about an axis, e.g.
rotation of pages around spine of a
spiral notebook
describe rotation by:
– orientation of axis of rotation (plunge
and azimuth)
– sense of rotation (clockwise vs.
counter-clockwise, viewed down axis
of rotation)
– magnitude of rotation (measured in
degrees)
Non-Rigid Body deformation
Dilation : distance between internal points
of reference increases or decreases but
shape remains uniform
Distortion : non-uniform changes in
distance between points within a body
results in a change in shape
Stress:
Stress field in a body is described by mapping out the
components of the array at all points. If these components are
the same at all points, the stress field is homogeneous
otherwise It is inhomogeneous.

At any point in a homogeneous stress field, three mutually

orthogonal planes exist upon which the shear stresses are
zero. These three planes are known as the principal planes
of stress and their normals are the principal axes of stresses,
denoted by σ1, σ2, and σ3, respectively.

The state of stress at a point may be characterized by giving

these three principal stresses and their directions.

The value of stress varies not only with the orientation and
magnitude of the imposed force but also as the area of action
changes orientation and magnitude. This can be seen clearly
In the figure, where cross sections of cubes are shown with a
force of magnitude F acting normally to one cube face of area A.
The plane P is also cutting the cube, whose normal is inclined at
an angle of θto F.
 Types of Stress in general sense

KN/m2

GEOL g406 Environmental

Geology
 Strength of Rocks

Rock strength is highly

variable.
Many Factors:
• rock type
• texture
• chemical composition
• internal structures
• presence or absence of fluids
Most rocks already fractured by joints and
faults.
Fractured rocks are only as strong as
whatever is holding the rock together (gravity
or friction).
• fracture along planes of weakness
• fracture along bedding planes or along
foliation planes
• orientation of planes of weakness is
important

GEOL g406 Environmental S. Hughes

Geology 2003
Components of stress
Components of stress
Compressive and shear stresses acting in the
X-Y plane of an elemental cube
The force F has been resolved into components normal
and parallel to the plane P. The components have
magnitudes:

ІFNІ = F cosθ ІFSІ = F sinθ

The stress σ on the cube face has the magnitude F/A
whereas the area of the plane P is

AP = A / cosθ
Hence,
ІFNІ = F cosθ = A σ cosθ= AP σ cos2θ
and
ІFSІ = F sinθ = A σ sinθ = AP σ sinθcosθ

Thus the magnitude of the normal and shear components

of stress across P are:

І σNІ = ІFNІ / AP = σ cos2θ = (F/A) cos2θ

and
І σSІ = ІFSІ / AP = (σ /2) sin2θ= (F/A) sinθcosθ

Thus, stress may not be resolved as the forces, and the

Change in magnitude of area of action must be considered.
 (a)

(b)

(a) State of stress at a point.

(b) General case of Fig (a) using a square
element to show all stresses.
 Fundamental elements of a Mohr circle of stress

Mohr circle representation of state of stress at point A

for a limiting case, where σx=σ1and σy=σ2.
Mohr circle representation of stresses shown in Fig (b)
 Mohr Diagram

Diameter of the circle is: 1 - 2

Center of the circle is: ½ (1+ 2) , 0
The equations for the normal and shear stresses across a
plane whose normal is inclined at  to 1 are:
σN = ½ (1+ 2) + ½ (1 - 2 ) cos2θ
σS = ½ (2 - 1 ) sin2θ

The above are the coordinates of any point P on the circle.

b) Uniaxial stress:
One principal stress nonzero
c) Biaxial stress:
Two of the principal stresses
are nonzero
d) Triaxial stress:
All three principal stresses
are nonzero
e) Pure shear stress:
1=-3 and is nonzero. 2 = 0
f) Hydrostatic pressure
where 1 = 2 = 3
Compressive and shear stresses acting in the
X-Y plane of an elemental cube
Stress field acting at a point on an inclined
plane in an elemental body of negligible
thickness.

Resolution of normal stress vector on

an inclined plane into X and Y axis
components.