Geology and assessment of soil strength using Mackintosh Probe in Bandar Jeli, Kelantan

This scientific research was conducted about geology and the soil strength to withstand the construction of building in study area which located at Bandar Jeli, Kelantan. The objectives of this research are to produce the geological map of study area in scale of 1:25 000 and to assess the soil strength by using Mackintosh probe. The assessment was made by recording the data of the number of the blow for every 30 cm penetration. Geological mapping was conducted in order to record geological data such as geomorphology, lithostratigraphy, structural geology and historical geology. Hand specimens of rock were collected for laboratory work which is petrography analysis in order to identify the type of the rock. Meanwhile, geological map shows the distribution of the rocks at study area which is around Bandar Jeli. The geology of the study area was identified as four types of lithology exist which are alluvium, granite, metasediment (phyllite) and gneiss. Besides that, geological map shows the estimation of the cross section of subsurface at study area. The production of geological map was by using ArcGIS version 10.2. Geomorphologically, study area have three types of landform terrain which are mountainous areas, hilly areas and plain areas. Drainage pattern was observed from base map and fieldwork, and classified as dendritic drainage pattern. Mackintosh probe test was conducted in order to assess the soil strength instead of other probes due to the only available in-situ penetration probe in University Malaysia Kelantan Jeli Campus. The raw data from this penetration test is the number of blows (M) against the depth in meter. Then, there raw data calculated by equation of Su = 18J0.3 to estimate undrained shear strength. These data analysed by using Microsoft Excel 2013 to construct the graph of bearing capacity against depth and undrained shear strength of the soils against depth.