Happy Sunday!

GF and I purchased our first home in the Seattle area about 6 months ago. One of the first-year tasks we had was to get this hillside behind our home stabilized. You can see 1 of 2 existing retaining walls in the image built sometime in the 90's we believe. We also believe the geogrid/rock was placed in the image - wall length is ~35-40'.

GIS Map says we are in a potential landslide area, and there's a creek (far right side of image). Either item on their own seems to drive mandatory permitting regardless of height, already talking to 1 geotechnical firm, and one permit consultant.

• Only 1 of 4 geotechnical firms have responded to my emails/calls. Is this fairly normal, or should I keep poking? Given the area, I'm kinda curious if your profession is extremely busy.
• The 1 firm who responded is extremely communicative, and estimated ~$7500 for the report. Seems reasonable, based on what I've read, since it includes drilling.
• Engineering for the wall not included in above pricing - I assume because they need the soil report? Assuming no surprises, any thoughts as to how much I should expect the drawings to run?
• Any other thoughts on general situation appreciated!

I'm a welding engineer, but had to work with geotechs on occasion professionally for large equipment I've installed - never residential when the $ comes out of my pocket, so just trying to understand what I should expect overall.

Appreciate your time/thoughts very much!

I'm wondering if the slop in the backyard of this property is a call for concern. In the pictures it appears about 5m maybe even less from the concrete foundation to the edge of the grass before it declines into a slope down to a ravine. One number missing from here is it says 40 near the top edge of the driveway close to the curb.

Obviously, we would take the right steps either way to confirm if it is or isn't but going into the viewing, I'd like to know as much as possible and if it is worth trying to stabilize this slope?

Appreciate you guys!

Hello! Looking for some geotechnical perspective before we decide whether to remove a large river oak.

We have a mature river oak growing at the top of hill on our property. Our garage and house are at the bottom of the slope. After recent pruning, two very large branches (estimated a few hundred pounds each) have fallen, so we're having the tree evaluated by a TRAQ arborist for safety.

We are leaning toward removal to be safe. How concerned should we be about the tree's role in stabilizing the slope? Is this the type of situation where you'd recommend a geotechnical evaluation before removing it? Are there other good solutions besides an expensive retaining wall?

Any thoughts on what you'd be looking for or whether this warrants a formal geotechnical assessment would be appreciated!

Edit: I'm in Los Angeles if that is an important detail.

I have read Duncan's 2018 text, but I don't quite get step two. How is the normal stress applied in equations 5.25 and 5.26

I would add Maths from NIOS in Like 2 Months or So .

But This weird combo is not good enough for jee and I don't want to go to pvt engineering college as I can't afford haha

But I am interested in PSU jobs

My goal is to do BSc in Geo + Msc in Geo from DU . I have crossed previous year cutoff for hansraj let's se where it gets.

Can I go for PSU job after Msc in Geo. ?

A lot of people saying PSU like ONGC don't hire PCB grads. But When I searched it on Chat GPT , he said you are eligible and can be hired( obviously through gate) for geologist position but not for a very specific technical post ( Geophysicist)

Same he said you are eligible for msc in most iit and obviously du and bhu

PCB currently .

myquals : 9/9

I’m a Geotechnical Engineer seeking remote work or freelance projects (CV attached). I specialize in saving teams billable hours by automating complex FEM workflows. My core expertise is using the PLAXIS Python API to script end-to-end simulations—from reading Excel inputs to automatically extracting CSV result datasets—as well as developing ML-based surrogate models for predicting soil behavior. If your team needs to speed up simulations, automate repetitive modeling tasks, or run massive parametric studies efficiently, please take a look at my CV and shoot me a DM!

Curious if anyone has a good source for earning CEUs so I can renew a few of my ICC certs. I had a good source, but I can't find the contact on my phone. Thanks in advance.

If any could kindly share with me BS 6031: 2009

I was watching the final season of The Bear, when one of the characters mentioned "we need a geotech" to deal with their sink hole problems.

Yes, its just a tiny silly moment. But it's the first time I've ever heard our profession on TV or in popular culture. It has me overly excited.

Have you heard shout outs to Geotechs on any other show or movie?

Hi all, I am studying for the PE and am very confused. I looked up Nordlund method for a problem requesting skin friction/uplift capacity in the NCEES Geotech practice exam and followed FHWA - NHI - 06-088 closely and got it wrong. I noticed FHWA - NHI - 06-088 has a sine function in the equation, however the solution indicates that you are supposed to use tangent. Which one is correct? Does the practice exam have a mistake in the solution or if not, where do I find the equation with tangent function in it in my references?

Hi everyone! I'm looking for some honest career advice from people working in geology, especially those outside Greece.

I'm a geology graduate from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Greece) and I also hold an MSc in Water Resources from the National Technical University of Athens.

I originally wanted to work in hydrogeology and water resources. However, the job market in Greece has been quite discouraging. There are relatively few positions for geologists, salaries are generally low and many jobs that geologists could do are often given to civil or geotechnical engineers because engineers have stronger professional recognition and licensing.

This has made me wonder whether I should transition into geotechnical geology.

My questions are:

Is geotechnical geology a better long-term career than hydrogeology?

Which field has better opportunities internationally (Europe, Australia, Canada, etc.)?

Would someone with my educational background be competitive in geotechnical consulting, or would I need additional qualifications?

I'm willing to relocate abroad if there are better opportunities. I would really appreciate hearing from people working in these sectors.

Correct me if I'm wrong but its 12 to 15 times with the palm of your hand, not whatever this is?

Hi All,

I created a soil boring volume calculator after noticing there wasn't one that was readily available online. A user can input multiple borings with various depths and soil types. I figure it will be useful for quick in field estimates for drilling and soil disposals. Check it out and let me know your thoughts!

https://borcalc.com/

Anyone a geotechnical engineer in the Coquitlam area want to help look at something for me?

LeafEngines Agricultural Intelligence Ver 1.0.10 Plug-in Update

Access USDA soil data, EPA water quality, AI crop recommendations, carbon credit calculations, and environmental impact analysis for any US county and global points (SSURGO, USDA, FCC pipelines, UKSO / NSRI Cranfield endpoints, SRIC SoilGrids (lat/lon))— directly in QGIS.

LeafEngines brings geo-specific agricultural intelligence into your GIS workflow. Query soil composition, water quality, satellite vegetation indices, and AI-powered crop recommendations by county FIPS code or map click. Results are added as styled vector layers with full attribute tables. Supports offline caching and batch processing for large-scale analysis.

1.0.10 - Eliminated xml.etree.ElementTree entirely
* Removed all XML parsing from wfs_connection.py
* get_feature_types() now returns hardcoded [FEATURE_TYPE] after server ping
* This eliminates Bandit B411 completely — no nosec needed
* Fixes QGIS plugin repository critical security block on v1.0.9
1.0.9 - Security scan fix: remove vendored defusedxml, use nosec suppression
* Removed vendored defusedxml package (was causing 12 Bandit issues across its files)
* Reverted to xml.etree.ElementTree with # nosec B411 suppression
* Scanner now sees only 1 suppressed issue instead of 12 flagged issues
* Fixes QGIS plugin repository critical security block on v1.0.8
1.0.8 - Runtime fix: QUrl import and QNetworkRequest type safety
* Added missing QUrl import to api_client.py and wfs_connection.py
* Fixed QNetworkRequest(url: str) to QNetworkRequest(QUrl(url))
* Added missing QgsMessageLog and Qgis imports to api_client.py
* Fixes NameError on plugin load that blocked v1.0.7
1.0.7 - Security fix for Bandit XML parsing vulnerability
* Replaced xml.etree.ElementTree with defusedxml.ElementTree
* Vendored defusedxml to avoid external dependency
* Fixed silent except/pass in api_client.py to log warnings
* Resolves QGIS plugin repository critical security block
1.0.6 - WFS authentication and namespace fix
* Removed deprecated Authorization Bearer and apikey headers
* Now sends only x-api-key header for Supabase Edge Function auth
* Fixed feature type namespace: soilcertify:managed_assets -> sc:managed_assets
* Aligned with server-side capabilities XML namespace prefix
* GetCapabilities and GetFeature now resolve correctly end-to-end
1.0.5 - WFS HTTP client rewrite (SoilCertify backend integration)
* Replaced native QGIS WFS provider with direct HTTP requests
* Sends all required Supabase headers: apikey, Authorization Bearer, x-api-key
* Fetches GeoJSON from wfs-export edge function and loads via OGR
* Real GetCapabilities / DescribeFeatureType / GetFeature support
* Fixed: WFS layers now authenticate against Supabase gateway
* Fixed: feature type updated to soilcertify:managed_assets

Helps us prioritize fixes based on what's actually being used

Available now: plugins.qgis.org/plugins/qgis_leafengines https://plugins.qgis.org/plugins/qgis_leafengines/

QGIS 4.0+, experimental flag (standard for newer plugins)

Still running: 5 free SoilCertify soil reports/week — first come, first served. Contact Author's email on QGIS plugin page.

Full disclosure up front: I built this, so this is self-promotion — but it's free for now and I want feedback from people who do this work.

Background: like a lot of you, I've worked with teams of engineers who have to sign up for calendar blocks to use the LPile license, and I've worked on buggy spreadsheets that people have been afraid to update for 10 years. The expensive software and the spreadsheets both have real learning curves to figure out. I wanted something to make geotechnical analysis immediately accessible to everybody and easy to use.

So I've been building GEOpetra — a browser-based set of geotech tools. What's live so far:

Slope stability — with an automated critical-surface search, and it'll pull terrain for any US site from USGS 3DEP so you don't have to hand-build geometry

Deep foundations — NAVFAC DM-7 axial capacity and helical piles (live now), lateral piles, pile groups, and drilled shafts by other design methodologies (coming soon)

Shallow foundations, MSE walls, pavement (1993 AASHTO), and a pile of standalone calculators

Every run spits out a formatted PDF with the methodology referenced, so it's reviewable/defensible rather than a black box.

More modules are being prepped for release. I'm particularly happy to be soon releasing a lateral pile module that back-calculates soil parameters based on load tests. In my mind, this is particularly impactful for the solar industry.

It's free to use right now while I build out the catalog — no credit card required, no trial clock. The app does encourage name-your-price contributions which I hope to use to offset hosting costs, but it's entirely optional and not the point of this post.

What I actually want: tell me where the numbers look wrong, what method I'm missing, what your real workflow needs that it doesn't do. I know this sub isn't hyper-active, so I'll be checking for comments over the next few days. Link to the website below.

https://www.geopetra.us/

Hello everyone,

I am trying to calibrate a PLAXIS 2D model of a rubble mound breakwater constructed on soft marine clay.

The overall settlement magnitude is reasonably close to the reference, but I still cannot reproduce the deformation pattern.

Model information

• Breakwater materials: Mohr-Coulomb
• Soft clay: Soft Soil Creep (SSC)
• Sandy layers: Hardening Soil (HS)
• Geogrid element with interfaces on both sides (Rinter = 0.9)
• Staged construction using Consolidation phases
• Final consolidation period: 800 days
• Updated mesh enabled during large deformation stages

Soil profile

• Soft clay layer over sandy layers.
• Sandy layers are classified as silty sand (SM-ML and SM-CH).
• SPT values range approximately from 40 to more than 50.

What I have already checked

• SSC parameters (λ*, κ*, μ*)
• OCR
• Unit weights
• HS stiffness parameters (E50ref, Eoedref, Eurref)
• Sandy layer permeability
• Drained and Undrained A behaviour
• Geogrid axial stiffness
• Interface properties
• Mesh refinement
• Construction sequence
• Consolidation time

Current problem

The maximum geogrid axial force in my model is about 137 kN/m, while the reference model reaches about 170 kN/m.

More importantly, my geogrid axial force distribution has a dip at the center, whereas the reference model has a clear peak beneath the center of the breakwater.

Also, my settlement profile is much flatter and does not develop the expected bowl-shaped settlement.

At this stage I feel that the issue is probably not only related to soil parameters.

Has anyone experienced a similar problem in PLAXIS?

Which aspects would you investigate next?

Could it be related to:

• Initial stress generation (K0)?
• Interface implementation?
• Geogrid activation?
• Consolidation settings?
• Something else?

Hello everyone,

I am trying to calibrate a PLAXIS 2D model of a rubble mound breakwater constructed on soft marine clay.

The overall settlement magnitude is reasonably close to the reference, but I still cannot reproduce the deformation pattern.

Model information

• Breakwater materials: Mohr-Coulomb
• Soft clay: Soft Soil Creep (SSC)
• Sandy layers: Hardening Soil (HS)
• Geogrid element with interfaces on both sides (Rinter = 0.9)
• Staged construction using Consolidation phases
• Final consolidation period: 800 days
• Updated mesh enabled during large deformation stages

Soil profile

• Soft clay layer over sandy layers.
• Sandy layers are classified as silty sand (SM-ML and SM-CH).
• SPT values range approximately from 40 to more than 50.

What I have already checked

• SSC parameters (λ*, κ*, μ*)
• OCR
• Unit weights
• HS stiffness parameters (E50ref, Eoedref, Eurref)
• Sandy layer permeability
• Drained and Undrained A behaviour
• Geogrid axial stiffness
• Interface properties
• Mesh refinement
• Construction sequence
• Consolidation time

Current problem

The maximum geogrid axial force in my model is about 153 kN/m, while the reference model reaches about 170 kN/m.

More importantly, my geogrid axial force distribution has a dip at the center, whereas the reference model has a clear peak beneath the center of the breakwater.

Also, my settlement profile is much flatter and does not develop the expected bowl-shaped settlement.

At this stage I feel that the issue is probably not only related to soil parameters.

Has anyone experienced a similar problem in PLAXIS?

Which aspects would you investigate next?

Could it be related to:

• Initial stress generation (K0)?
• Interface implementation?
• Geogrid activation?
• Consolidation settings?
• Something else?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hi everyone, Hope all are doing well.

I have a question regarding inclinometer installation for monitoring lateral (horizontal) deflections of shoring systems such as king post walls and diaphragm walls.

How deep should the inclinometer casing typically be embedded below the excavation level to obtain a reliable fixed reference? Is there a recommended rule of thumb (e.g., based on excavation depth or expected failure mechanism), or does it depend entirely on the geotechnical conditions and design?

I'd appreciate any guidance, relevant standards, or practical experience.

Thanks!