Hi
Marls are types of calcareous soils that include high
calcite(Caco3) content, they are fine grained and have good strength
parameters(qu,CBR,..) in the dry condition , but when they are in
touch with water their strength parameters are greately reduced.They
are classified as ML,CL or CH according to unified classification
system ( there are coarse grained marls in some places in the world
such as Saudi Arabia) , the major difference between these soils and
other type of clays are their calsium carbonate content , thus I
think the cause of strength reduction must be some reaction between
water and calcite or another reason that depends on calcite,
but I couldn't find any clear reason or reaction for this problem in
the litrature.I would appreciate if anyone could give any kind of
information about these kind of soils and especially the problem
mentioned above and it's causes.
Sincerely
Siavash Ghabezloo
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