MINING

Geotechnics is a field that aims to apply knowledge of earth sciences to engineering problems involving the Earth's crust, soil, stones, and related materials. The overall goal of the field is to make the Earth and its resources more accessible to and usable by people. Most of the people who are involved in the field of geotechnics are either geologists or geotechnical engineers; usually, people from both disciplines will work together on any given problem. The field of geotechnics is often applied to architecture, as an understanding of the Earth is important to crafting strong foundations in any conditions, especially in areas that are prone to earthquakes or other geological disturbances.
One of the major concerns of the field is avoiding or minimizing the damage that can be caused by natural disasters such as landslides, earthquakes, and other natural disasters involving the Earth. A large part of the job of avoiding such disasters is prediction. Engineers must be able to accurately predict the movements of the Earth's plates, groundwater, soil, and rock. A failure to do so because of poor understanding of the Earth and its ever-shifting surface could lead to a collapsed bridge or a broken dam. Because of these risks, experts in geotechnics are very important to many different fields.




On October 9, 1963, a landslide broke loose and filled the reservoir behind theVaiont Dam in Italy. This in turn caused a huge wave of water to surge over the top the dam, flooding towns downstream. The Vaiont slide is a notorious case in geology/geotechnical engineering.