Applied Salt-Rock Mechanics, 1: The In-Situ Behavior of Salt Rocks considers the principles of the inelastic in-situ behavior of rock salts. This five-chapter text surveys the successful application of hypothesis in various salt deposits. This book deals first with the geological investigations concerning the genesis and geologic features of salt deposits, specifically the geology of evaporite formation. The following chapter describes the physical and mechanical properties of salt rocks, such as creep, strain, hardening, tensile and shearing strengths, permeability, and plasticity. The discussion then shifts to the mechanism of stress-relief creep occurring in salt rock by excavation. The last chapter examines stress-relief creep zones, which extend to the boundary of interbedded formations exhibiting elastic behavior.