The use of the grading entropy as a measure of the soil texture maturity

In this study, the concept of grading entropy is applied to evaluate the textural evolution of waste rocks at the surface of rehabilitated mine dumps. A series of mine‐spoil samples that were collected from topsoils and subsoils at sites of mine rehabilitation that had been established for different periods of time. According to the results, the increase in particle degradation which occurs nearer to the rehabilitated surface could be observed in changes in the grading curve, and numerically accounted for through changes in the grading entropy. The samples showed similar trends to the soils in many fragmentation problems: a near‐fractal distribution, outside of the unstable zone of the grading entropy diagram. The samples plotted in the transitional stability zone, with the most stable sample being the natural sub soil. However, unlike fragmentation by crushing, the largest fragments were not necessarily preserved through a cushioning by the smaller particles.