Effects of Soluble Salts on the Unfrozen Water Contents of the Lanzhou, P.R.C. (People's Republic of China) Silt

摘要

Phase composition curves are presented for a typical saline silt from Lanzhou, P.R.C., and compared to some silts from Alaska. The unfrozen water content of the Chinese silt is much higher than that of the Alaskan silts due to the large amount of soluble salts present in the silts form China, which are nto present in silt from interior Alaska. When the salt is removed, the unfrozen water content is then similar for both the Chinese and Alaskan silt. Here we introduce a technique for correcting the unfrozen water content of partially frozen soils due to high salt concentrations. We calculate the equivalent molality of the salts in the unfrozen water at various temperatures from a measurement of the electrical conductivity of the extract from saturated paste.