Location

New York, New York

Date

17 Apr 2004, 10:30am - 12:30pm

Abstract

Two case histories are presented which refer to the historical towns of Orvieto and Bisaccia, both located on top of rock buttes overlying a more deformable clayey substratum. The comparison of the two case histories indicates that apparently similar geological conditions do not lead to the same type of seismic response. In fact, the specific physical and dynamic properties of the substratum and the overlying slab can determine different seismic behaviour at the hill top and at the rock-clay interface. In particular, at Bisaccia a deamplification of the seismic motion at the hill top was predicted, as well as the development of excess pore pressures in the clay deposit underneath the conglomerate. On the other hand, at Orvieto significant amplification of surface motion is expected, due to the impedance contrast between the different pyroclastic materials of the rock slab and to the topography effect at the slab edge as well.

Department(s)

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering

Meeting Name

5th Conference of the International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering

Publisher

University of Missouri--Rolla

Document Version

Final Version

Rights

© 2004 University of Missouri--Rolla, All rights reserved.

Creative Commons Licensing

Creative Commons License
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

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Apr 13th, 12:00 AM Apr 17th, 12:00 AM

Seismic Response Analysis of Historical Towns Rising on Rock Slabs Overlying a Clayey Substratum

New York, New York

Two case histories are presented which refer to the historical towns of Orvieto and Bisaccia, both located on top of rock buttes overlying a more deformable clayey substratum. The comparison of the two case histories indicates that apparently similar geological conditions do not lead to the same type of seismic response. In fact, the specific physical and dynamic properties of the substratum and the overlying slab can determine different seismic behaviour at the hill top and at the rock-clay interface. In particular, at Bisaccia a deamplification of the seismic motion at the hill top was predicted, as well as the development of excess pore pressures in the clay deposit underneath the conglomerate. On the other hand, at Orvieto significant amplification of surface motion is expected, due to the impedance contrast between the different pyroclastic materials of the rock slab and to the topography effect at the slab edge as well.