ABSTRACT
Civil engineers are interested in the interaction of civil engineering structures with the ground. However, to fully understand the response, it is necessary to appreciate the science of the ground, which, in terms of glacial soils, has attracted the interest of geologists, physicists, mathematicians and sedimentologists. The impact on glacial soils is uncertain because of the spatial variability of these soils. Glacial soils, which range in size from clay to boulders, are formed from source material, which may be soil or rock, by mechanical and fluvial processes. By the end of the nineteenth century, glaciation was accepted and the emphasis switched to the source of the glacial material. The different theories of glacial movement stemmed from the fact that it was difficult to observe displacements within the ice and the underlying sediments. Soil mechanics is traditionally developed in terms of fine-grained soils and coarse-grained soils, which undergo gravitational consolidation and swelling.
