Papers/Articles/Posters
The papers and articles here are offered by myself and others who have kindly extended their permission. Please contact me if you want to contribute content to this site but note that I only post useful and well-presented material. Use the resources freely, but please credit authors! All resources are provided on the condition that they be used for sole use, and for the non-commercial purpose of scientific and engineering research.
Papers on Block Proportions and Block Size Distributions
Medley, E.W. and Goodman, R.E., 1994; Estimating the block volumetric proportions of melanges and similar block-in-matrix rocks (bimrocks), Proceedings, 1st North American Rock Mechanics Symposium, Austin, TX, May 1994.
Medley, E., 1994; Using stereological methods to estimate the volumetric proportions of blocks in melanges and similar block-in-matrix rock (bimrocks), Proceedings, 7th Congressional International Association of Engineering Geologists, Lisbon, Portugal, September 1994.
Medley, E., 1997; Uncertainty in estimates of block volumetric proportions in melange bimrocks, Proceedings, International Association of Engineering Geologists, Athens, Greece, June 23–27, 1997. NOTE in March 2023: This paper was (finally!) updated using heroic amounts of computer-generated data. See: Napoli et al, 2022.
Medley, E., 2002; Estimating block size distributions of melanges and similar block-in-matrix rocks (bimrocks), Proceedings, 5th North American Rock Mechanics Symposium, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, July 2002, pp. 599–606.
Haneberg, W. C., 2004; Simulation of 3D block populations to characterize outcrop sampling bias in bimrocks, Felsbau Rock and Soil Engineering-Journal for Engineering Geology, Geomechanics and Tunneling, vol. 22, No. 5, September 2004.
Papers on Characterization
Coli, N., P. Berry, R. Bruno and D. Boldini, 2010; Advanced Methods for the Characterization of Block-in-Matrix Rocks (bimrocks), POSTER at Ricerca@DICAM, Faculty of Engineering, University of Bologna; Bologna, Italy, June 23, 2010.
Coli, N, P. Berry and D. Boldini, 2011: “An integrated geostatistical-geomechanical approach for the characterization of a bimrock“, Proc Conference of Am. Rock Mech, Assn., San Francisco, CA, June 2011
Coli, N., P. Berry, D. Boldini, and R. Bruno, 2008; In Situ Large Size Non Conventional Shear tests for the Mechanical Characterization of a Bimrock in the Santa Barbara Open Pit Mine; Paper ARMA 09-184; Proc. 43nd U.S. Rock Mechanics Symposium and 2nd U.S.-Canada Rock Mechanics Symposium, Asheville, NC, July 2009.
Coli, N., P. Berry and D. Boldini, 2010; In Situ Non Conventional Shear Tests for the Mechanical Characterization of a Bimrock; ed. Zhao et al; Proc. Eurock 2010; Taylor & Francis Group, London; pp 585-588.
Medley, E.W., 1994; The Engineering Characterization of Melanges and Similar Block-in-Matrix Rocks (Bimrocks), Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Civil Engineering, University of California at Berkeley (also: darker reprints of selected pages). FOR A VERSION WITH CLEARER GRAPHICS and double-spaced lines: use this 410 page version.
Medley, E., 2001; Orderly Characterization of Chaotic Franciscan Melanges, Felsbau Rock and Soil Engineering-Journal for Engineering Geology, Geomechanics and Tunneling, Vol. 19, No. 4, pp. 20-33, July 2001.
Medley, E., 2004; Observations on Tortuous Failure Surfaces, Felsbau Rock and Soil Engineering-Journal for Engineering Geology, Geomechanics and Tunneling, vol. 22, No. 5, September 2004.
Medley, E., 2007a; Bimrocks-Part 1: Introduction, Newsletter of the Hellenic Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, February 2007, No. 7, pp 17-21 with Errata.
Medley, E., 2007b; Bimrocks – Part 2: Case Histories and Practical Guidelines, Newsletter of the Hellenic Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, April 2007, No. 8, pp 26-31.
Medley, E., 2008; Engineering the Geological Chaos of Franciscan and Other Bimrocks, Proc. Session 12: Melanges, Mixed Materials and Chaotic Rocks, 42nd U.S. Rock Mechanics Symposium and 2nd U.S.-Canada Rock Mechanics Symposium, San Francisco, July 2008 (Also: June 28 2008 Field Trip Guide for an informal tour of Franciscan complex melanges in the San Francisco Bay Area)
Medley, E. and Zekkos, D. (2011): Geopractitioner approaches to working with antisocial mélanges in ed. Wakabayashi, J. and Y. Dilek, Special Publication 480- Mélanges: Processes of Formation and Societal Significance, Geological Society of America, Boulder, CO, pp. 263-279. (See Wakabayashi and Dilek’s full-text Introduction to the volume at the GSA website).
Napoli, M.L, L. Milan, M. Barbero and E. Medley, 2022: Investigation of Virtual Bimrocks to Estimate 3D Volumetric Block Proportions from 1D Boring Measurements, Geosciences
2022, 12, 405. https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences12110405
Riedmueller G., F. J. Brosch, K. Klima, and E. Medley, 2001; Engineering Geological Characterization of Brittle Faults and Classification of Fault Rocks, Felsbau Rock and Soil Engineering-Journal for Engineering Geology, Geomechanics and Tunneling, Vol. 19, No. 4, pp. 13-18, July 2001.
Riedmueller, G, F. Brosch, K. Klima, and E. Medley, 2004: Engineering Geological Classification of Fault Rocks; POSTER Eurock 2004 and 53rd Geomechanics Colloquium, Salzburg, Austria, October 2004.
Shaller, P., S. Sutarwala and E. Medley, 2002a: Poster 1 of 2: Meeting the Challenge of Characterizing Subsurface Conditions in Bouldery Terrain, Annual Conference, Paper No. 115-8 Engineering Geology Poster Session, Geological Society of America, Denver, CO, October 29, 2002.
Shaller, P., S. Sutarwala and E. Medley, 2002b: Poster 2 of 2: Meeting the Challenge of Characterizing Subsurface Conditions in Bouldery Terrain, Annual Conference, Paper No. 115-8 Engineering Geology Poster Session, Geological Society of America, Denver, CO, October 29, 2002.
Wakabayashi, J. and E. Medley, 2002; Melange and Fault Rocks Exposed In and Around an Abandoned Quarry at the Schmidt Lane Recycling Center, El Cerrito, California, (with Appendices), in Mathieson, E.L., Field Trip Guide for AEG-ASCE Short Course: Tunnelling in Fault Rocks and Tectonic Melanges, a Short course for Engineering Geologists and Geotechnical Engineers, held in Oakland California, May 31-June 1, 2002.
Wakabayashi, J. and E. Medley, 2004; Geological Characterization of Melanges for Practitioners; Felsbau Rock and Soil Engineering-Journal for Engineering Geology, Geomechanics and Tunneling, vol. 22, No. 5, September 2004.
Papers on Strength and Deformation Properties
Irfan, T.Y. and K.Y. Tang, 1992; Effect of the Coarse Fractions on the Shear Strength of Colluvium; Special Project Report, SPR 15/92 (GEO 23) Geotechnical Engineering Office, Hong Kong, pp. 223
Lindquist, E. S., 1994; The Strength and Deformation Properties of Melange, Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Civil Engineering, University of California at Berkeley (kindly made available by Dr. Eric Lindquist, P.E.).
Lindquist, E.S, and R.E. Goodman, 1994; Strength and deformation properties of a physical model melange, Proceedings, 1st North American Rock Mechanics Symposium, Austin, TX, May 1994.
Sönmez, H., C. Geokceoglu, E. Tuncay, H. Nefeslioglu, and E. Medley, 2004; Relationships Between Volumetric Block Proportions and Overall UCS of a Volcanic Bimrock, Felsbau Rock and Soil Engineering-Journal for Engineering Geology, Geomechanics and Tunneling, vol. 22, No. 5, September 2004.
Sönmez, H., H. Altinsoy, C. Gokceoglu and E. Medley, 2006; Considerations in Developing an Empirical Strength Criterion for Bimrocks, Asian Rock Mechanics Symposium (ARMS 2006), November 6-10, Singapore.
Sönmez, H., K. Kasapoglu, C Coskun, C. Tunusluoglu, E. Medley and R. Zimmerman, 2009; A Conceptual Empirical Approach for the Overall Strength of Unwelded Bimrocks, in Proc. Rock Engineering in Difficult Ground Conditions, Karst and Soft Rock, Int. Soc. Rock Mechanics Regional Symposium, Dubrovnik, Croatia, 29-31 October, 2009
Sönmez, H., Ercanoglu, M., Medley, E., Juang, H., Turer, D., Dagdelenler, G., Ozcan, N.T.,
Kalender, A.: Development of a combined empirical approach for the estimation of the
strength of rockfills, rock masses and bimrocks. H.U. Scien. Res. Pro. Coor. Unit., Project no:
FBA-2015-6221, p. 66 (2018)
Sönmez, H., E. Medley, A Kalender, G. Dagdelenler, N. T. Ozcan and M Ercanoglu, 2021; An Empirical Method for Predicting the Strength of Bim Materials Using Modifications of Lindquist’s and Leps’ Approaches, In: Barla, M., Di Donna, A., Sterpi, D. (eds) Challenges and Innovations in Geomechanics. IACMAG 2021. Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering, vol 126. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64518-2_90
Papers on Scale Independence
Medley, E. and E.S. Lindquist, 1995; The engineering significance of the scale-independence of some Franciscan melanges in California USA, Proceedings, 35th U.S. Rock Mechanics Conference, Lake Tahoe, California, June 1995.
Papers on Slope Stability
Kim, C, C. Snell and E. Medley, 2004; Shear Strength of Franciscan Complex Mélange as Calculated From Back-Analysis of a Landslide, Proceedings 5th International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering, New York, NY, April 2004.
Khorasani, E, M. Amini, M. F. Hossaini and E. Medley, 2019; Statistical analysis of bimslope stability using physical and numerical models, Engineering Geology, V. 254, 2019,
Pages 13-24, ISSN 0013-7952, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2019.03.023.
(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0013795219301474)
Khorasani, E., M. Amini, E. Medley, S. T. Azali , M. F. Hossaini, 2022; A General Solution for Estimating the Safety Factor of Bimslopes, Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-022-03050-z
Medley, E. and P. Sanz Rehermann, 2004; Characterization of Bimrocks (Rock/Soil Mixtures) with Application to Slope Stability Problems, Proceedings of Eurock 2004 and 53rd Geomechanics Colloquium, Salzburg, Austria, October 2004
Medley, E., 2005: Simple Observations on the Stability of Slopes in Complex Bimrocks; Geosyntec GEAG Conference, Atlanta, August 2005 (made available with the permission of Geosyntec Consultants).
Montoya-Araque, E.A., Suarez-Burgoa, L.O. & Medley, E.W. , 2020; Application of the tortuous surface method to stochastic analysis of bimslope stability. Bull Eng Geol Environ 79, 5329–5340 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10064-020-01909-5
Papers on Tunneling and Dams
Button, E., G. Riedmueller, W. Schubert and E. Medley, 2004; Tunnelling in Tectonic Melanges: Accommodating the Impacts of Geomechanical Complexities and Anisotropic Rock Mass Fabrics, Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment, March 2004.
Moritz, B., K. Grossauer and W. Schubert, 2004; Short term prediction of system behaviour of shallow tunnels in heterogeneous ground, Felsbau Rock and Soil Engineering-Journal for Engineering Geology, Geomechanics and Tunneling, vol. 22, No. 5, September, 2004.
Glawe, U., and B. N. Upreti, 2004; Better understanding the strengths of serpentinite bimrock and homogeneous serpentinite; Felsbau Rock and Soil Engineering-Journal for Engineering Geology, Geomechanics and Tunneling, vol 22, No. 5, September 2004.
Felsbau, October 2004 Edition on Bimrocks
The October 2004 edition of Felsbau Journal of Rock and Soil Engineering, edited by Dr. Edmund Medley. The Journal is sponsored by the Austrian Society for Geomechanics (http://www.oegg.at). The October 2004 edition was devoted to papers on bimrocks and included contributions on characterization, tortuosity, slopes, tunneling, and dams. Individual papers are as listed above. Also: the complete October 2004 edition of Felsbau is available (9MB).
The October 2004 edition is provided here with permission from the Chief Editor of Felsbau and the Publisher, VGE (Verlag GE, Essen) of Essen, Germany, who also provided the PDFs.
The October 2004 edition of Felsbau was dedicated to the late Professor Gunter Riedmueller (1940-2003), an outstanding international engineering geologist and a premier authority on the characterization of fault rocks, tectonic melanges and other bimrocks.