Determination of Saline Soils Specific Gravity

Abstract

The existence of salts as part of the solid phase of the soil or dissolved within the pore fluid may cause significant errors in the values of specific gravity of such soils by using conventional determination methods. Errors may arise from effects of wrong measurements of weights or volumes that take place due to dissolution of the salt during testing, precipitation during drying or dehydration of the crystals of certain salts such as gypsum. To overcome this confusion, the standard procedure for specific gravity determination is reconsidered and the calculation methods are reanalyzed. Suggestions for a more adequate procedure for gypseous or other types of saline soils are presented and corrections required for computations are derived.