JOURNAL OF FACULTY OF ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY, Vol 21, No 1 (2014)

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ENGINEERING AND GEOLOGICAL PARAMETERS OF CAMBRIAN AND PRECAMBRIAN ROCKS NEAR ABBOTATABAD AREA, PAKISTAN

Naseem Aadil, Muhammad Saleem Khan, Sadia Sohail

Abstract


A detailed geological and engineering investigation is carried out to find out the geological and engineering properties of Precambrian and Cambrian rock units of Axial belt from Hazara area, Pakistan. These investigations include field geological mapping, field and lab testing with various techniques such as Total station, Brunton compass, Scanline survey and Schmidt Hammer for determining geological characteristics and field strength of rocks. Four formations i.e. Hazara, Tanawal, Abbottabad and Hazira were mapped and engineering characteristics are investigated in this study. Hazara unit of turbidity current deposit consists of slates, phyllite with minor occurrences of limestone and graphitic layers. Some thick bedded fine to medium grained sandstone units is also present. Tanawal formation consists of medium grained quartzite and fine grained mica quartz schist of low grade metamorphism. In the surveyed area, the lower phyllite of Abbottabad Formation is replaced by conglomerate followed by alternating shale, sandstone and dolomite. The formation consists of thick marble beds containing phosphate deposits. The marble is laminated or thin bedded and ranges in colour from white and grey to blue while the Hazira Formation consists mainly of dirty grey and yellowish brown calcareous shaly siltstone. As a result of this mapping, a plunging anticline structure was identified. The field strength of exposed units in the area was established using the Schmidt Hammer technique. Further, slope stability analysis was carried out by applying latest version of DIPS software. The results indicate that the area has gone through light metamorphism due to tectonic activity which is indicated by three major discontinueties in the area. The analysis shows two types of failures (toppling and wedge failure) were identified which can cause damages to the human settlements at the toe of the mountain slopes of Abbotabad area.


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Faculty of Engineering and Technology

University of the Punjab

Lahore-54590-Pakistan