Geoscience Reference
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and plastic limits decreased with increases in the amount of petroleum hydro-
carbon in the soils. The decrease in liquid limit was greater in the silt loam soil
(38 %) than in the sandy soil (16 %); these values are significantly lower than the
liquid limits values (66 and 62 %) in the pristine soils. Plastic limits also increased
with increases in amounts of petroleum hydrocarbons. Testing other geotechnical
parameters, Rahman et al. (
2010
) found that the soil maximum dry density and
optimum moisture content dropped due to increases in petroleum hydrocarbon
content in the contaminated soils. Similar behaviors were observed on measure-
ments of permeability and shear strength of the soils.
Geoelectrical properties of the soil-subsurface system, such as dielectric con-
stant, conductivity, and resistivity, may also be altered following contamination by
petroleum hydrocarbons. Based on the fact that electromagnetic properties of
geomaterials are related directly to the liquid retained in the pore space, Darayan
et al. (
1998
) determined the dielectric constant and the conductivity of a soil from
the Texas Sugar Land area (USA), contaminated by a spill of diesel oil. The
dielectric constant increased with the addition of diesel oil. Darayan et al. (
1998
)
attributed these results to the replacement of water by diesel oil in the pore space.
Are changes to geotechnical and geoelectrical properties induced by petroleum
hydrocarbon contamination of the soil-subsurface system irreversible? Given that
a heavy fraction of the hydrocarbon remains in the soil-subsurface pore matrix,
after volatilization of the light fraction, changes to these properties can be con-
sidered irreversible over human lifetime scales.
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