ABSTRACT
An investigation was undertaken in an arid region of Australia to determine the cause of cracking in buildings founded on soil consisting of wind-blown, carbonate-rich sandy clay overlying a dense carbonate-free sandy clay, which may be an older fully leached, wind-blown deposit. It was concluded that the damage to the buildings was being caused by soil softening and leaching out of carbonates by water seepage at the base of the carbonate-rich deposit.
