Skempton's contributions to Engineering Geology, particularly of the Quaternary

摘要

At the time of Skempton's undergraduate course at Imperial College (1932-35), the teaching of geology for engineers in Britain was at an early stage of its development. Apart from a little glacial physiography, the Quaternary was almost wholly ignored (e.g. Blyth, "A Geology for Engineers", 1943). The situation in North America was broadly similar, though there was perhaps a greater realisation there of the need to relate basic soil mechanics, and construction experiences, to the regional and local geological background (e.g. Legget, "Geology and Engineering", 1939; Terzaghi and Peck, "Soil Mechanics in Engineering Practice, 1948). Nonetheless, as his daughter records (Niechcial, 2002), in his second undergraduate year Skempton "became fascinated by geology, finding inspiration in the lectures of Frank Blyth". This was the crucial kindling of his interest and enthusiasm for the subject, which matured and sustained him throughout the six decades of his professional career. Particularly from the 1960s onwards, studies of Quaternary geoscience in Britain expanded exponentially to form the advanced disciplines of today. Skempton had the notable ability to follow and absorb these rapid developments and to embody them in his consulting and research work. In this he was helped, from 1964/65, by becoming a member of the newly formed Quaternary Research Association, which put him in close and regular touch with the leading Quaternary scientists and geologists in Britain and abroad. (He had joined the Geologists' Association in 1941 and became a Fellow of the Geological Society in 1944). While Skempton did not develop a school of "engineering geology" or of "Quaternary studies", his gifted teaching and many outstanding contributions on these subjects inspired colleagues and generations of students with a sound grasp of the intimate and inescapable relationships between geology and engineering.