CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

(CAL TRANS)

UNIFIED SOIL CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM

UNIFIED SOIL CLASSIFICATION AND SYMBOL CHART LABORATORY CLASSIFICATION CRITERIA

COARSE-GRAINED SOILS
(more than 50% of material is larger than No. 200 sieve size.)
Clean Gravels (Less than 5% fines)
D50 D30
Well-graded gravels, gravel-sand cu =- - greater than 4; Cc = between 1 and 3
GW GW D10 0 10 x D50
mixtures , little or no fines
GRAVELS
More than 50% Poorly-graded gravels , gravel-sand
GP GP Not meeting all gradation requirements for GW
of coarse mixtures, little or no fines
fraction larger Gravels with fines (More than 12% fines)
than No. 4
sieve size Atterberg limits below "A"
GM Silty gravels, gravel-sand-silt mixtures GM Above "A" line with P.I. between
line or P.I. less than 4
4 and 7 are borderline cases
Clayey gravels, gravel-sand-clay Atterberg limits above "A" requiring use of dual symbols
GC GC
mixtures line with P. I. greater than 7
Clean Sands (Less than 5% fines)
D50 D30
Well-graded sands, gravelly sands, cu =- - greater than 4; Cc = between 1 and 3
SW SW D10 0 1oxD60
little or no fines
SANDS
50% or more Poorly graded sands, gravelly sands ,
SP
of coarse little or no fines SP Not meeting all gradation requirements for GW
fraction smaller Sands with fines More than 12% fines
than No. 4
sieve size Atterberg limits below "A" Limits plotting in shaded zone
SM Silty sands , sand-silt mixtures SM
line or P.I. less than 4 with P.I. between 4 and 7 are
borderline cases requiring use
Atterberg limits above "A"
SC Clayey sands, sand-clay mixtures SC of dual symbols.
line with P. I. greater than 7
FINE-GRAINED SOILS
(50% or more of material is smaller than No. 200 sieve size.) Determine percentages of sand and gravel from grain-size curve. Depending
on percentage of fines (fraction smaller than No. 200 sieve size),
Inorganic silts and very fine sands, rock coarse-grained soils are classified as follows:
ML flour, silty of clayey fine sands or clayey Less than 5 percent .................................... GW, GP, SW, SP
SILTS silts with slight plasticity More than 12 percent ... . .............................. GM, GC, SM, SC
AND 5 to 12 percent ................... Borderline cases requiring dual symbols
CLAYS Inorganic clays of low to medium
Liquid limit CL plasticity, gravelly clays, sandy clays,
less than silty clays , lean clays PLASTICITY CHART
50%
Organic silts and organic silty clays of 60
OL
low plasticity
~
~
50
,,/
Inorganic silts, micaceous or
~ CH /
MH diatomaceous fine sandy or silty soils ,
>< 40
/
SILTS elastic silts w V" ALINE:
AND
CLAYS Inorganic clays of high plasticity, fat
C
~ 30
Vp1 = on(LL-20)

Liquid limit
CH
clays
>-
I-
u 20
CL ,,/ MHloH
50%
or greater
j:: /
Organic clays of medium to high
(/)
<( 10
/
OH ...J
plasticity, organic silts II.. CL+ML ./ ML&OL
I
00 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
HIGHLY
ORGANIC PT Peat and other highly organic soils LIQUID LIMIT (LL) (%)
SOILS