Impacts of Cracks on Soil Moisture and Surface Shear Strength in Semi-Arid Mining Area

To study impacts of cracks on soil moisture and surface shear strength in mining areas, especially cracks caused by mining-triggered subsidence, a field experiment was carried out determining changes in soil moisture content and surface shear strength along the direction perpendicular to a crack for correlation analysis. Results show that along the direction perpendicular to a crack, soil moisture was somewhat positively related to distance from the measurement point to the crack, though the correlation was not significant(P>0.05). It was found that the average soil moisture content increased with the distance from the measurement point to the crack. The appearance of cracks reduced soil moisture content in the cracks and their surroundings, to some extent. Surface shear strength was also positively related to the distance from the measurement point to the crack, though the correlation was not significant either (P>0.05). It was also found that land cracks had some impacts on soil structure of their surroundings, that is, the closer to the cracks, the lower the shear strength, which demonstrates that land cracks reduce the shear strength of the soil around them.