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Effect of weathering on the geomechanical properties of the Miocene basalts

in Malatya, Eastern Turkey

Article  in  Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment · December 2005

DOI: 10.1007/s10064-005-0005-2

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Bull Eng Geol Env (2005) 64: 373–381
DOI 10.1007/s10064-005-0005-2 ORIGINAL PAPER

Zulfu Gurocak
Recep Kilic
Effect of weathering on the geomechanical
properties of the Miocene basalts in Malatya,
Eastern Turkey

Received: 18 May 2004

Accepted: 1 May 2005
Published online: 8 November 2005

Springer-Verlag 2005
Z. Gurocak (&)
Department of Geological Engineering,
Firat University, Elazig, Turkey
E-mail: zgurocak@yahoo.com
R. Kilic
Department of Geological Engineering,
Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey
Abstract Miocene volcanic rocks are
widely exposed in the eastern Taur-
ids, Turkey. The geomechanical
properties and weathering degree of
the Middle–Upper Miocene basalts
were determined at the Boztepe dam
site in Malatya, eastern Turkey. An
engineering geology map of the
Boztepe dam site was made and the
joint sets and the degree of weath-
ering determined in the field. The
degree of weathering and RQD val-
ues were obtained on some 1,195 m
of core which was then compared
with a series of geomechanical tests
including unit weight, porosity, wa-
ter absorption, uniaxial compressive
strength and compressive wave
velocity. The geomechanical prop-
erties were compared with the
weathering classifications of ISRM
(Rock characterization, testing and
monitoring, p 211, 1981) and Kilic
(Environ Eng Geosci 4:475–483,
1999)
Keywords Basalt Æ Eastern Turkey Æ
Geomechanical properties Æ
Weathering
Résumé Les roches volcaniques mi-
ocènes affleurent largement dans
l’est des chaı̂nes duTaurus en Tur-
quie. On s’est intéressé aux propri-
étés géomécaniques et au degré
d’altérationdes basaltes du Miocène
moyen et supérieur sur le site du
barrage de Botzepe à Malatya,
dansl’est de la Turquie.Une carte de
géologie de l’ingénieur du site du
barrage a été réalisée, les familles
dediscontinuités et les degrés d’alté-
ration étant étudiés sur le terrain. Le
degré d’altération et lesvaleurs de
RQD ont été obtenus à partir de
1195 m de carottes qui ont alors été
comparés àune série de résultats
d’essais géomécaniques : densité,
porosité, absorption d’eau, résis-
tanceà la compression simple et vit-
esse des ondes de compression. Les
propriétés géomécaniquesont été
mises en rapport avec les classes
d’altération de l’ISRM (1981) et de
Kilic (1999).
Mots clés Basalte Æ Est de la
Turquie Æ Propriétésgéomécaniques Æ
Altération météorique

Introduction engineering properties of rocks have been studied by

The geomechanical properties of rocks vary consider-
ably depending on the rock type, extent of tectonism,
discontinuities and weathering. Weathering is the most
important of these factors, affecting bearing capacity
and excavatability. The effects of weathering on the
numerous investigators and various weathering classi-
fications have been proposed. Anon (1995) and ISRM
(1981) suggested classifications mainly based on field
observations and determined six classes with respect to
the degree of weathering. Iliev (1967) defined five
weathering classes based on compressive wave velocity.
374
Haskins and Bell (1995) studied the weathering and
strength of the Drackensberg basalts while Tugrul and
Gurpinar (1997) worked on the effect of the chemical
weathering of basalts on their engineering properties.
Kilic (1999) proposed the United Alteration Index
(UAI) classification on the basis of compressive wave
velocity and the uniaxial compressive strength of ba-
salt and diabases and classified these rocks into five
groups.
The main aim of the present study was to demon-
strate the effect of weathering on the geomechanical
parameters of the Middle–Upper Miocene basalts in the
Boztepe dam site in the Malatya area. By examining
core samples, a weathering profile of the basalts was
constructed. The dry and saturated bulk volume weight,
porosity, water absorption, uniaxial compressive
strength and compressive wave velocity of the basalts
were determined in the laboratory. The data obtained
from the field and laboratory studies were evaluated
with regression analyses and the relation between the
geomechanical properties and weathering degree of the
basalts in the study area determined.
Geology
The study area is located 10 km northwest of Yazihan in
the city of Malatya, eastern Turkey (Fig. 1) where the
Boztepe dam site is under construction on the Yagca
stream. Units of various ages from the Upper Jurassic to
the Quaternary are exposed in the region. Middle–Up-
per Miocene volcano-sedimentary rocks are exposed at
the Boztepe dam site. These rocks are a part of the
Fig. 1 Location map of the
study area and the distribution
of Miocene volcanics in eastern
Turkey
Z. Gurocak and R. Kilic
extensive Miocene volcanism in the Eastern Anatolian
Region (Fig. 1).
As a consequence of thickening of the continental
crust along the line of the Anatolian/Arabian plates and
the tension fractures formed by the extensional forces,
extensive volcanism occurred in eastern Anatolia be-
tween the Middle Miocene and the Quaternary. In the
west, the volcanism is referred to as the Yamadag Vol-
canites (Bozkaya and Yalcin 1991) while in the east and
southern parts of Hekimhan around the city of Malatya,
it consists of four members: the Basak rhyolite, the Kale
andesite, the Baskinik pyroclastics and the Kozdere
basalt. They are referred to as the Kepez basalts by
Akkus (1971) and the Hacova Volcanites by Gozubol
and Onal (1986) and Karaman et al. (1993). Ercan and
Asutay (1993) divided the Miocene volcanism in the
Eastern Anatolian Region from east to west into five
groups: Bingol, Diyarbakir, Tunceli, Elazig and Malatya
volcanics. These authors suggest the Malatya Volca-
nics—the western part of the Miocene volca-
nism—reflect three stages: basaltic-andesitic lava, tuff,
agglomerate and dacitic lavas.
The Yamadag Volcanites are represented by five
different mappable rock units extending upwards from a
sandstone–claystone through tuffite, basalt, agglomerate
and dacite members. As seen in Fig. 2, at the dam site
the main valley is in tuffite with basalt forming the
plateau to the east. The tuffites are a dirty white or light
grey colour and well-bedded with bed thicknesses vary-
ing from 300 to 600 mm in the lower levels to 50–
200 mm in the upper levels. Joints within the tuffite are
commonly altered and filled with clay or calcite up to
20–30 mm thick. The basalts overlying the tuffites are
Effect of weathering on the geomechanical properties of the Miocene basalts in Malatya, Eastern Turkey 375

Fig. 2 Engineering geology

map of the Boztepe dam axis
site

dark grey in colour (Fig. 2). In the lower levels, they are
mainly pillar lavas while columnar structures are com-
mon near the top. Vesicles are rare and the basalts are
generally well-jointed.
The basalts are composed mainly of plagioclase,
clinopyroxene and olivine. The long prismatic crystals of
the Na-rich plagioclase feldspars (labradorite) extend
into the clinopyroxene. In addition to the opaque min-
erals, some chloritization of pyroxenes and serpentini-
zation of the olivines can be detected.
The agglomerate member overlying the basalts
(Fig. 2) is generally dark in colour and massive in
structure. The individual boulders are weakly rounded
and reach up to 0.7 m in size. This unit also contains
interlayers of tuff and basalt flows. Overlying these Fig. 3 Percentage distribution of RQD values of basalts in the
mainly Miocene deposits are talus and alluvial materials. study area
376
Fig. 4 Stereographic projection
of joint sets of basalts in the
study area
Geotechnical studies
Geotechnical studies were conducted in two stages—field
and laboratory work. During the field surveys, a 1:2,500
scale engineering geology map of the Boztepe dam site
was made (Fig. 2). The field studies also included the
direction, persistence, spacing, opening, roughness and
filling of discontinuities in the basalts and the degree of
weathering along the joints. In addition, an examination
Fig. 5 Histograms for engi-
neering properties of joints in
the study area
Z. Gurocak and R. Kilic
was made of the 1,195 m of core from 20 boreholes
drilled by State Hydraulic Works (DSI 1997) in 1997.
The RQD values of the basalts was determined and an
assessment made of their weathering state. On the basis
of the weathering classification, changes in RQD values
for each weathering degree were determined. The histo-
gram shown in Fig. 3 was prepared using the RQD
divisions proposed by Deere (1964). It can be seen that
only 6% of the basalts have excellent, 14% good, 32%
fair, 23% poor and 25% very poor rock qualities.
Effect of weathering on the geomechanical properties of the Miocene basalts in Malatya, Eastern Turkey 377

Table 1 Engineering properties of joints in basalts and their per-

centage distribution

Properties Spacing Description Percentage

Spacing (mm)a <20 Extremely close spacing 5

20–60 Very close spacing 33
60–200 Close spacing 42
200–600 Moderate spacing 20
Persistence (m)a <1 Very low persistence 33
1–3 Low persistence 56
3–10 Medium persistence 11
Aperture (mm)a <0.1 Very tight 8
0.1–0.25 Tight 14
0.25–0.5 Partly open 10
0.5–2.5 Open 16
2.5–10 Moderately wide 48
> 10 Wide 4
Roughness (JCR)a 0–2 Planar slickensided 9
2–4 Planar smooth 6
4–6 Planar rough 34
6–8 Planar very rough 27
8–10 Undulation slickensided 10
10–12 Undulation smooth 14
Weathering (Wc)b £ 1.2 Fresh/Unweathered 22
1.2–2 Moderately weathered 67
‡2 Weathered 11
a
According to ISRM (1981)
b
According to Singh ve Gahrooee (1989)

Fig. 6 Weathering profile of basalts in the study area

the Schmidt hammer and the weathering index calcu-
lated from the equation proposed by Singh and Ga-
hrooee (1989):
Engineering properties of discontinuities rc
Wc ¼
JCS
As the study area is located in a seismically active region,
In this equation:
the rocks exposed around the Boztepe dam site contain
rc Uniaxial compressive strength of fresh rock
systematic joint sets. As noted above, the main orien-
(MPa)
tation, spacing, persistence, aperture and roughness of
JCS Strength of discontinuity surface (MPa)
joints sets were described using the line survey method
JCS was calculated from the following equation:
and the description criteria of ISRM (1981). The
weathering state of the joint surfaces was assessed using LogJCS ¼ 0:00088cR þ 1:01

Fig. 7 Percentage distribution

of basalts in the weathering
classifications proposed by
ISRM (1981) and Kilic (1999)
378 Z. Gurocak and R. Kilic

Table 2 Statistical evaluation

of geomechanical properties of Properties Sample no. Mean Max Min Stand. er.
basalts
Dry unit weight (cd) kN/m3 51 25.55 28.10 23.10 1.48
Saturated unit weight (cs) kN/m3 51 26.32 28.30 24.60 1.04
Water absorption (Aw) % 51 3.53 8.82 0.47 2.12
Porosity (n) % 51 6.35 13.39 0.71 3.91
Compressive wave velocity (Cp) m/sec 51 4,297.35 6,576 1,797 1,486.10
Uniaxial compressive strength (rc)MPa 51 40.64 76.46 8.72 19.67

Table 3 Equations for

geomechanical properties of
basalts and United Alteration
Index (UAI)
Geomechanical properties Equations Correlation coefficent (r)
Dry unit weight (cd) kN/m 3
UAI=3.77 ) 0.127cd )0.94
Saturated unit weight (cs) kN/m3 UAI=4.95 ) 0.168cs )0.88
Porosity (n) % UAI=0.271 + 4.65*10)2 n 0.87
Water absorption (Aw) % UAI=0.298 + 6.76*10)2 Aw 0.88
Compressive wave velocity (Cp) m/s UAI=1.12 ) 1.4*10)4 Cp )0.99
Uniaxial compressive strength (rc) MPa UAI=0.94 ) 9.92*10)3 rc )0.98

In this equation:
c Bulk volume weight (kN/m3)
R Hardness value from rebounding of Schmidt ham-
mer.
In the study area, a total of 520 joint measurements
were taken from the basalts and evaluated using the
DIPS3.01 computer software (Diederichs and Hoek
1989) and the stereographic projection technique. The
main directions of the joint sets of the basalts were
determined N78W, 78SW; N87W, 71NE; N17E,
67NW; and N9E, 72SE (Fig. 4). The cooling fractures
of the basalts could not be evaluated in this way as they
had random orientations.
The joint sets in the study area contain 20 mm of clay
in areas of high weathering close to the surface and up to
5 mm of calcite in the slightly weathered levels.
Using the data obtained from the line survey
studies, histograms were prepared (Fig. 5). The distri-
bution of the engineering parameters is shown in
Table 1.
Weathering
Using the ISRM (1981) classification, in the tuffites it
was noted that the weathering degree decreased to a
depth of 43 m and then increased (Fig. 6). In the basalts,
the slightly weathered rocks contained closed joints with
colour changes; while in the moderately weathered
basalts, the joint opening increased and was frequently
filled with calcite and to a lesser extent clay; less than
half the basalt had degraded to a residual soil. In the
highly weathered basalts, the joint opening increased
and the spacing decreased such that clay was the com-
mon fill type and more than half of the basalts has been
transformed to residual soil. In the completely weath-
ered basalts, 90% of the material was residual soil.

Laboratory studies

In order to determine the geomechanical properties of

the basalts at the Boztepe dam site, a total of 51 core
samples were collected representing each of the weath-
ering states with respect to the description criteria of
ISRM (1981). These samples were subjected to dry (cd)
and saturated (cs) bulk volume weight, porosity (n),
water absorption (Aw), uniaxial compressive strength
(rc) and compressive wave velocity (Cp) tests following
ASTM (1994). A statistical evaluation of these test data Fig. 8 The relationship between weathering classification (ISRM
is given in Table 2. 1981) and RQD values of basalts in the study area
Effect of weathering on the geomechanical properties of the Miocene basalts in Malatya, Eastern Turkey 379

Fig. 9 The relationship between weathering classification (ISRM 1981) and geomechanical properties

The weathering degree of the basalts was also deter- Figure 7 compares the results according to the two
mined using the United Alteration Index Classification weathering classifications. Figure 8 compares the RQD
(UAI) proposed by Kilic (1999), from which the United values and the degree of weathering following ISRM
Alteration Index (UAI) was computed from the fol- (1981). As would be expected, there is a distinct differ-
lowing equation: ence with the less-weathered material having RQDs of
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
 ffi 70% upwards and the more-weathered materials RQDs
Cpa rca of <50%.
UAI ¼ 1
1

Cpi rci

In this equation, Relationship between weathering and geomechanical

Cpa Compressive wave velocity of altered basalt (m/s)
Cpi Compressive wave velocity of unaltered basalt (m/s)
rca Uniaxial compressive strength of altered basalt
(MPa)
rci Uniaxial compressive strength of unaltered basalt
(MPa).
properties
The relationship between the degree of weathering
(ISRM 1981) and six laboratory parameters are given in
Fig. 9. Where appropriate, e.g. with uniaxial compres-
sive strength, three measurements are given: the
380
Fig. 10 The relationship between geomechanical properties and the United Alteration Index Classification proposed by Kilic (1999)
maximum, minimum and mean values. As anticipated, it
is only with the porosity and water absorption that the
values increase with degree of weathering. A comparison
was also made between the mechanical properties of the
basalts and the UAI proposed by Kilic (Fig. 10). Again,
it is only the porosity and water absorption which in-
crease with the degree of weathering. The correlation
coefficients (r) of >80 confirm that the geomechanical
properties are significantly affected by advancing
weathering.
Results and conclusions
From the field and laboratory studies, the following
results were obtained for the weathering state and geo-
mechanical properties of Miocene basalts in the eastern
Taurids, Turkey.
Z. Gurocak and R. Kilic
1. The basalts have a dry unit weight of 23.1–28.1 kN/
m3, saturated unit weight of 24.6–28.3 kN/m3,
porosity of 0.71–13.39%, water absorption of 0.47–
8.82%, compressive wave velocity of 1797–6576 m/s
and uniaxial compressive strength of 8.72–
76.46 MPa.
2. The basalts in the study area contain four joint sets
and randomly orientated other joints. These joints
have a close to very close spacing, low to very low
persistence, planar roughness, are moderately wide
and moderately weathered. In the highly weathered
materials, the joints are filled with clay up to 20 mm
thick and may be cemented with calcite (0.5 mm
thick).
3. The weathering of the basalts decreases to a depth of
43 m from the surface and then becomes more
weathered down to the tuffite unit.
Effect of weathering on the geomechanical properties of the Miocene basalts in Malatya, Eastern Turkey 381

4. The RQD values of the basalts decrease with in-
creased weathering. The RQD values of the
unweathered/fresh and slightly weathered basalts are
75–100% while those of the moderately and highly or
completely weathered basalts are 40–85 and 0–50%.
5. On the basis of the ISRM (1981) classification, 4% of
basalts are unweathered/fresh, 19% slightly weath-
ered, 30% moderately weathered, 35% highly
weathered and 12% completely weathered. Based on
the UAI classification, 22% of the basalt is slightly
altered, 28% moderately altered, 39% highly altered
and 11% extremely altered.
6. Good linear relationships were found between the
weathering degree of the basalts and their geome-
chanical properties. Only the porosity and water
absorption show an increase in the more extensively
weathered materials.

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