ground conditions in al-madinahal-munawarah, saudi arabia · saudi arabia mohammad ibrahim matsah*...

J K,W, Eurth Sci., \·01 .6.",,47·77 ( 14 13 A.II. /1 993 A .I) .) Ground Conditions in Al-Madinah Al-Munawarah, Saudi Arabia MOHAMMAD IBRAHIM MATSAH* and D ELWAR HOSSAIN H ., Department of Structural Geology and Remote Sensing, "<Department of Engineering Geology, Faculty of Earth Sciences, King Abdulaziz University, Ieddah, Saudi Arabia AUS TRA C1. Th e Saudi A rabian City of AI-Madinah is situ ated in a d epo s- itional basin surround ed by lava plateau s and hills within the we stern pari of the Arabian Shield. Within a maximum d epth of 45 rn, the sub-soil in AI- Madinah consists of nine soil types (one "fill", six n atur al co hes ive and two cohesionless) and thre e rock typ es. Th e co hesive soils var y from highly compressible organic clay and soft compressible/swelling grey-green clay 10 hard clay while the cohesionless soils are of medium to very dense relative den sity. Th e rocks vary from weak limest one to massive gabb row, Th e " fill" and some of the other soils occur at the top while the rocks occur either at depth or as isolated hilly outcrops. Po or or problcrn utic gr ound conditions arc encount ered down to a maximum depth of 15 m in some are as to the south. east and north-east of th e Prophet's Mo sque due to the presence of weak soils with high compre s- sibility and/or swell poten tial. Protective mea sur es for found ati on con cr ete and reinforcement are nece ssar y due to agg ressive gro und condition s. Ground water control measur es a re generally not require d for usual constructions. l. Introduction The holy city of AI-Madinah AI-Munawarah is located in West ern Saudi Arabia. The recent oil-boom initiated a large volume of development work in it. The site investigation reports of some of the recent major projects of AI-Madinah like the large-scale expansion of the Prophet 's Holy Mo sque and The Ring Road s contain a large volume of geotechn ical data about the AI-Madinah sub-soil which has little been studied except for Er ol et al. (1981) , Dhowian et al. (1990) (on the swelling potential of two AI- Madinah clays) , Sabbagh and Abuzaid (1991) (on reduct ion of swelling pre ssure of a 47

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J K,W, Eurth Sci., \·01.6.",,47·77 ( 14 13A.II. /1 993 A .I) .)

Ground Conditions in Al-Madinah Al-Munawarah,Saudi Arabia

MOHAMMAD IBRAHIM MATSAH* and D ELWAR HOSSAIN H

., Department ofStructural Geology and Remote Sensing,"<Departm ent of Engineering Geology, Faculty of Earth Sciences,

King A bdu laziz Universit y , Ieddah , Saudi Arabia

AUSTRAC1. Th e Saudi A ra bian City o f AI-Madinah is situ ated in a depositional basin surrounded by lava plateau s and hills within the western pari o fthe A rabian Shield. Within a maximum depth of 45 rn, the sub-soil in AIMadin ah con sists o f nine soil typ es (on e "fill" , six natural co hes ive and twoco hesio nless) a nd three rock typ es. Th e co hesive soi ls var y from highl ycompre ssible or ganic clay and soft co mpress ible/swelling grey-green clay 10

hard clay while the cohesionless soil s are of medium to ver y dense relativeden sity. Th e rocks vary from weak limest one to massive gabbrow, Th e " fill"a nd so me of the o ther so ils occur at the top while th e rocks occu r either a tdepth or as isolated hilly out crops .

Poor o r pro blcrn utic ground conditions arc en countered down to amaximum depth of 15 m in some areas to the south . east and north-east ofth e Prophet's Mosque due to the presen ce of weak soils with high compressibility and/or swell potential.

Pr ot ective mea sur es for foundati on con crete and reinforcement arenece ssar y due to agg ressive gro und conditions. Ground water co nt ro l measur es a re generally not required for usu al constructio ns .

l. Introduction

The holy city of AI-Madinah AI-Munawarah is located in Western Saudi Arabia. Therecent oil-boom initiated a large volume of development work in it. The site investigation reports of some of the recent major projects of AI-Madinah like the large-scaleexpansion of the Prophet 's Holy Mosque and The Ring Roads contain a large volumeof geotechnical data about the AI-M adinah sub-soil which has little been studied except for Erol et al. (1981) , Dhowian et al. (1990) (on the swelling potential of two AIMadinah clays) , Sabbagh and Abuzaid (1991) (on reduction of swelling pressure of a