The role of clay fractions of marly soils on their post stabilization failure

This paper focuses attention on the some basic aspects of the role of clay fraction of marly soils including palygorskite and sepiolite upon marl behaviour. The clay fraction of marl is generally dominated by palygorskite and/or sepiolite. It is the performance of these clay soil fractions that are the root cause of many of the problems encountered in the use of such soils as load-bearing materials. This makes it necessary to investigate the role of palygorskite and sepiolite on marly soilʹs performance. In this paper, some geotechnical and geoenvironmental aspects of marl behaviour is investigated and a new definition and classification of marly soils is presented. This classification focuses attention on the presence of palygorskite or sepiolite as the major fraction of marl, which governs its geoenvironmental and geotechnical behaviour.