Construct · 3 fields · 3 citations
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In sedimentary geology, compaction is the progressive loss of pore space and volume that buried sediment undergoes as the weight of overlying material squeezes grains closer together and expels pore water, carrying loose sediment toward rock. Athy's 1930 Density, Porosity, and Compaction of Sedimentary Rocks established the classic exponential decline of porosity with burial depth. The referent is burial-driven densification of sediment, measured by porosity versus depth; it shares the idea of densification with the geotechnical engineer's compacted soil, while the computer scientist's compaction is a different thing entirely.[1]
In soil mechanics, compaction is the deliberate densification of soil by applying mechanical energy (rolling, tamping, or vibrating) to drive out air and pack the particles, raising dry density and strength for foundations, roads, and embankments. Gurtug and Sridharan's 2002 Prediction of compaction characteristics of fine-grained soils relates a soil's optimum moisture content and maximum dry density to its index properties. The referent is energy-driven densification engineered to a target, measured by the moisture–density (Proctor) relation; it is close kin to sediment compaction but distinct from how the term is used in computing.[2]
In computer science, compaction is the relocation of live data in memory or storage so that the free space it leaves behind is gathered into one contiguous block, eliminating the fragmentation that accumulates as objects are allocated and freed. Jones, Hosking, and Moss's 2023 chapter Mark-compact garbage collection describes collectors that, after marking the reachable objects, slide them together to reclaim a single free region. The referent is defragmentation by moving objects, measured by fragmentation and reclaimed space. It is the same word as in geology and soil mechanics but an unrelated construct about memory layout, not densification of matter.[3]
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