Sensitive Clays Of Eastern Canada: From Geology To Slope Stability

Landslides in Eastern Canadian sensitive clay deposits are generally located along river or stream valleys. The stratigraphy of these deposits can be simplified as an impervious clay deposit between two pervious boundaries, a weathered fissured crust at the top and a coarse till layer at the bottom. The paper examines the evolution of the ground water regime as the valleys are formed by erosion and discusses the impact of the valleys formation on the requirements for slope stability analysis and determination of shear strength. A large data bank of laboratory test results are then presented and treated to arrive at a determination of the shear strength parameters based only on the preconsolidation pressure.