Abstract

Salty soils cause many engineering problems for foundations and the safety of buildings founded on them. Accordingly, it is important to study the salinity of surficial soils, types of salts, their percentages at bearing strata of Basrah city, and their relationship with standard specifications to detect their effect on engineering behavior of these soils. The study area represents the center of Basrah governorate. In this area, ten sites are selected for sampling. Field investigations include drilling of ten boreholes to depths of 3m for each, and a number of 30 disturbed samples were collected either by hand or mechanical auger. Chemical tests were carried out to calculate the percentage of sulfates, chlorides, calcium carbonate of soils. Chemical test results show that the average percentage of sulfates is 1.29%, chlorides 0.9%, calcium carbonate 57.5%. It can be concluded that the soils at study area are salty but to a certain limit because of different degrees of salinity at different sites and depths, and because this salinity can rise or decrease within time according to geological and environmental conditions.

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The article was added to IASJ on 2017-03-06

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