Study on the mechanical properties of outwash deposits with random structure method

ABSTRACT Outwash deposit is one of the major threats to the safety and stability of railway transit engineering in the Sichuan–Tibet area. In this paper, different samples of outwash deposits were prepared based on the random structure method, and a series of large-scale direct shear tests were carried out under different normal stresses. The influence of stone content and the spatial distribution of stone blocks on the physical and mechanical properties of outwash deposits were studied. The results show that with the increase of stone content, the shear stress-displacement curve changs from strain softening to strain hardening. The shear zone is larger, and its shape is more tortuous due to the movement and rotation of stone blocks. The internal frictional angle increases linearly while the cohesion diseases with the increase of stone content. The main influence of the spatial distribution of stone blocks on the mechanical properties of outwash deposits is the peak stress. The shear zone is mainly determined by the distribution of the stone blocks near the shear zone.

Stratigraphy of the Fort Qu'Appelle Vertebrate Fossil Locality, Saskatchewan

The Fort Qu'Appelle vertebrate fossil locality is in the Echo Lake Gravel, which lies between tills of the Sutherland and Saskatoon Groups. Biostratigraphers have indicated that the Echo Lake Gravel is either a Sangamonian deposit or a Wisconsin an interstadial deposit. The physical evidence however, suggests that the gravel is an outwash deposit which was deposited at the close of an interglacial or interstadial interval during the advance of the glacier that deposited the Floral Formation.