Location
St. Louis, Missouri
Presentation Date
06 Apr 1995, 10:30 am - 12:30 pm
Abstract
Large subsided areas, especially those that intersect the water table, were among the more dramatic morphoseismic features produced by the great New Madrid earthquakes of 1811-12 in the central Mississippi River valley. Seismically induced liquefaction (SIL) with associated densification and/or lateral-movement of fluidized sediments is a well-documented factor in relatively small-scale subsidences not involving depths greater than 30 meters. Several of the sunk lands associated with the New Madrid series, such as Reelfoot Lake, Tennessee, and Big Lake, Arkansas/Missouri, are quite large with areas of more than 200 square kilometers. If SIL was a significant factor in the subsidence of these large areas the depths of liquefaction would have to extend 50 meters or more in depth. At this time there are no documented cases of SIL at such depths. This study provides an analysis of order-of-magnitude loading stresses that would be required, versus pore-water pressures that would have to be overcome to have SIL in great depths. This analysis suggests that SIL can occur at depths in excess of 100 meters under selected conditions and that such conditions were probably met during the great New Madrid earthquakes and played a role in creating some of the largest morphoseismic landforms still visible in the New Madrid Seismic Zone today.
Department(s)
Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering
Meeting Name
3rd International Conference on Recent Advances in Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering and Soil Dynamics
Publisher
University of Missouri--Rolla
Document Version
Final Version
Rights
© 1995 University of Missouri--Rolla, All rights reserved.
Creative Commons Licensing
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Document Type
Article - Conference proceedings
File Type
text
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Stewart, David and Knox, Ray, "What is the Maximum Depth Liquefaction Can Occur?" (1995). International Conferences on Recent Advances in Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering and Soil Dynamics. 27.
https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/icrageesd/03icrageesd/session03/27
Included in
What is the Maximum Depth Liquefaction Can Occur?
St. Louis, Missouri
Large subsided areas, especially those that intersect the water table, were among the more dramatic morphoseismic features produced by the great New Madrid earthquakes of 1811-12 in the central Mississippi River valley. Seismically induced liquefaction (SIL) with associated densification and/or lateral-movement of fluidized sediments is a well-documented factor in relatively small-scale subsidences not involving depths greater than 30 meters. Several of the sunk lands associated with the New Madrid series, such as Reelfoot Lake, Tennessee, and Big Lake, Arkansas/Missouri, are quite large with areas of more than 200 square kilometers. If SIL was a significant factor in the subsidence of these large areas the depths of liquefaction would have to extend 50 meters or more in depth. At this time there are no documented cases of SIL at such depths. This study provides an analysis of order-of-magnitude loading stresses that would be required, versus pore-water pressures that would have to be overcome to have SIL in great depths. This analysis suggests that SIL can occur at depths in excess of 100 meters under selected conditions and that such conditions were probably met during the great New Madrid earthquakes and played a role in creating some of the largest morphoseismic landforms still visible in the New Madrid Seismic Zone today.
