Soil mechanics Soil mechanics Soil mechanics is a branch of soil physics and applied mechanics that describes the behavior of soils. It differs from fluid mechanics and solid mechanics in the sense that soils consist of a heterogeneous mixture of fluids (usually air and water) and particles (usually clay, silt, sand, and gravel) but soil may also contain organic solids and other matter. Along with rock mechanics, soil mechanics provides the theoretical basis for analysis in geotechnical engineering, a subdiscipline of civil engineering, and engineering geology, a subdiscipline of geology. Soil mechanics is used to analyze the deformations of and flow of
Parramatta Sand Body Conservation Area and Military Barracks Site and slightly mottled with depth. The upper parts of the soil profile are usually heavily mixed, especially by cicada larvae. In places the sand is cut by deposits of mottled or gleyed clay that were probably deposited in swamps or waterholes on the terrace surface. The reasonably defined levee, 50 to 100 centimetres high, along the terrace edge between Charles and Alfred Streets, comprises cleaner and very slightly coarser sand than the sand found around the margins of the levee. The profile of the sand suggests that the main body of sand is of late Pleistocene age and recent thermoluminesence