Cementation (geology)

Cementation involves ions carried in groundwater chemically precipitating to form new crystalline material between sedimentary grains.

As the water between the narrow spaces of grains drains from the beachrock, a small portion of it is held back by capillary forces, where meniscus cement will form.

Hardgrounds are hard crusts of carbonate material that form on the bottom of the ocean floor, below the lowest tide level.

Isopachous (which means equal thickness) cement forms in subaqueous conditions where the grains are completely surrounded by water (Boggs, 2006).

The filtration of iron compounds from a very sensitive clay from Labrador, Canada, resulted in a 30 t/m reduction in apparent preconsolidation pressure.

Eventually, larger grains are embedded in a clay matrix and their influence on geotechnical behavior is limited.

The clay confinement maintains a large void ratio even at high effective stresses, allowing the interparticle forces to spring up.