Material Order of Description

Keep soil and rock core descriptions simple, yet descriptive enough to be able to determine complete set of characteristics for each layer of strata. The order of description is as follows:
  1. Material
  2. Unified Soil Classification System
  3. Density or consistency, hardness or strength
  4. Moisture
  5. Color
  6. Cementation
  7. Descriptive adjectives [minor features of soils, degree of weathering in rock cores, open or closed jointing, vuggy or karstic texture, assessment of discontinuities (joints, natural fractures, bedding, etc) such as spacing, size, etc]
  8. Rock Quality Designation (RQD), percent recovery