Geotechnical Studies of Soils from an Evaporite Environment in Israel

The Dead Sea Basin is the lowest point on earth and is tectonically subsiding. During the Holocene Period the climate became much drier with increasing evaporation whereby initially lacustrine sediments were deposited from the non-marine brines, giving a multi-layered stratigraphy of lime carbonate and halite sediments. The lime carbonate sediments are comprised of laminated, clay to silt sized, clastic sediments (calcite) and authigenic aragonite and gypsum.

Chemical industries, based on harvesting the salts from the Dead Sea, have developed on both the Israeli and the Jordanian sides of the basin. Use of the lime carbonate soils for dike construction, and their presence, together with significant salt layers, in the foundations of structures, dikes, and tailings dams, requires definition of their geotechnical properties. Use of standard soil mechanics definitions and procedures for this purpose have been found inapplicable, particularly in view of the exceptionally high saline content of the soils. Procedures for defining geotechnical properties of these soils have been developed; some of these procedures and soil properties are presented and discussed in the paper.