Question

At a certain point within soil mass, the stresses are caused only because of surface loadings.

(a) True

(b) False

I had been asked this question during an online interview.

Question is taken from Stresses due to Self Weight in chapter Stress Distribution of Geotechnical Engineering I

Answer 1

Correct option is (b) False

To elaborate: At a certain point within soil mass, the stresses are caused because of surface loadings as well as self-weight of the soil mass above that point. The surface loadings and the self-weight of the soil are calculated separately and then summed to get the total stress at a point.