Introduction: It is important not only to teach about geology of rocks and minerals, but also how we can use

that knowledge for personal lives. Soil liquefaction is an important problem for cities built on sand because in earthquakes the soil underlying buildings will liquefy, causing buildings to sink differentially. It is one of the major sources of damage from earthquakes. The College of Engineering is exploring new ways to bring engineering to pre-college students. This exercise models what happens in earthquakes, and how it may affect people in our cities. Soil liquefaction is important whenever structures are built on saturated loose soils (sand). During strong ground motion from earthquakes, the sand will liquefy, and when it does the soil mixture acts like a fluid and the building built on top of it will sink. This was the reason for the extensive damage after earthquakes in Kobe, Japan, in 2001, and in Alaska in 1964. After the shaking stops, the sand grains settle and the sand layer compacts. Geotechnical engineers and geologists study ways to stabilize structures built on such soils. What they learn can also be applied to other structures such as bridges and buildings. Similar ground motion can also occur during blasting. In other words, soil liquefaction is studied for planning how much load (foundation of the building) the soil can support when constructing large buildings. Description: Liquefaction is a phenomenon in which the strength and stiffness of a soil is reduced by earthquake shaking or other rapid loading. Liquefaction and related phenomena have been responsible for tremendous amounts of damage in historical earthquakes around the world. Liquefaction occurs in saturated soils, that is, soils in which the space between individual particles is completely filled with water. This water exerts a pressure on the soil particles that influences how tightly the particles themselves are pressed together. Prior to an earthquake, the water pressure is relatively low. However, earthquake shaking can cause the water pressure to increase to the point where the soil particles can readily move with respect to each other. Schematic behavior of sand grains in a soil deposit during liquefaction. The blue column represents the pore water pressure.

Earthquake shaking often triggers this increase in water pressure, but construction related activities such as blasting can also cause an increase in water pressure. When liquefaction occurs, the strength of the soil decreases and, the ability of a soil deposit to support foundations for buildings and bridges are reduced as seen in the photo of the overturned apartment complex buildings in Niigata in 1964. Liquefied soil also exerts higher pressure on retaining walls, which can cause them to tilt or slide. This movement can cause settlement of the retained soil and destruction of structures on the ground surface (photo 1). Increased water pressure can also trigger landslides and cause the collapse of dams. Lower San Fernando dam (photo 2) suffered an underwater slide during the San Fernando earthquake, 1971. Fortunately, the dam barely avoided collapse, thereby preventing a potential disaster of flooding of the heavily populated areas below the dam.

Photo 1 Photo2

Flow Liquefaction & Cyclic Mobility: The term liquefaction has actually been used to describe a number of related phenomena. Because the phenomena can have similar effects, it can be difficult to distinguish between them. The mechanisms causing them, however, are different. These phenomena can be divided into two main categories: flow liquefaction and cyclic mobility. Flow Liquefaction: Flow liquefaction is a phenomenon in which the static equilibrium is destroyed by static or dynamic loads in a soil deposit with low residual strength. Residual strength is the strength of a liquefied soil. Static loading, for example, can be applied by new buildings on a slope that exert additional forces on the soil beneath the foundations. Earthquakes, blasting, and pile driving are all example of dynamic loads that could trigger flow liquefaction. Once triggered, the strength of a soil susceptible to flow liquefaction is no longer sufficient to withstand the static stresses that were acting on the soil before the disturbance.

An

analogy can be seen in the picture above, where the static stability of a ski jumper in the starting gate is disturbed when the jumper pushes himself from the start seat. After this relatively small disturbance, the static driving force caused by gravity, being greater than the frictional resisting force between the ski and snow, causes the skier to accelerate down the ramp. The path that brings the ski jumper to an unstable state is analogous to the static or dynamic disturbance that triggers flow liquefaction - in both cases, a relatively small disturbance precedes an instability that allows gravity to take over and produce large, rapid movements. Failures caused by flow liquefaction are often characterized by large and rapid movements which can produce the type of disastrous effects experienced by the Kawagishi-cho apartment buildings, which suffered a remarkable bearing capacity failure during the Niigata Earthquake 1964. The Turnagain Heights landslide, Alaska Earthquake 1964 which is thought to be triggered by liquefaction of sand lenses in the 130-acre slide area provides another example of flow liquefaction. Sheffield Dam suffered a flow failure triggered by the Santa Barbara Earthquake in 1925. A 300 ft section (of the 720 feet long dam) moved as much as 100 ft downstream. The dam consisted mainly of silty sands and sandy silts excavated from the reservoir and compacted by routing construction equipment over the fill (Seed, 1968). As these case histories illustrate, flow failures, can involve the flow of considerable volumes of material, which undergoes very large movements that are actually driven by static stresses.

The disturbance needed to trigger flow liquefaction can, in some instances, be very small. Cyclic Mobility: Cyclic mobility is a liquefaction phenomenon, triggered by cyclic loading, occuring in soil deposits with static shear stresses lower than the soil strength. Deformations due to cyclic mobility develop incrementally because of static and dynamic stresses that exist during an earthquake. Lateral spreading, a common result of cyclic mobility, can occur on gently sloping and on flat ground close to rivers and lakes. The 1976 Guatemala earthquake caused lateral spreading along the Motagua river. Observe the cracks parallel to the river (photo 3). On level ground, the high porewater pressure caused by liquefaction can cause porewater to flow rapidly to the ground surface. This flow can occur both during and after an earthquake. If the flowing porewater rises quickly enough, it can carry sand particles through cracks up to the surface, where they are deposited in the form of sand volcanoes or sand boils. These features can often be observed at sites that have been affected by liquefaction, such as in the field along Hwy 98 during the 1979 El Centro earthquake (photo4).

Photo3 Explanation:

Photo 4

To understand liquefaction, it is important to recognize the conditions that exist in a soil deposit before an earthquake. A soil deposit consists of an assemblage of individual soil particles. If we look closely at these particles, we can see that each particle is in contact with a number of neighboring particles. The weight of the overlying soil particles produce contact forces between the particles - these forces hold individual particles in place and give the soil its strength.

Soil grains in a soil deposit. The height of the blue column to the right represents the level of porewater pressure in the soil.

The length of the arrows represents the size of the contact forces between individual soil grains. The contact forces are large when the porewater pressure is low.

Liquefaction occurs when the structure of loose, saturated sand breaks down due to some rapidly applied loading. As the structure breaks down, the loosely-packed individual soil particles attempt to move into a denser configuration. In an earthquake, however, there is not enough time for the water in the pores of the soil to be squeezed out. Instead, the water is "trapped" and prevents the soil particles from moving closer together. This is accompanied by an increase in water pressure which reduces the contact forces between the individual soil particles, thereby softening and weakening the soil deposit. Observe how small the contact forces are because of the high water pressure. In an extreme case, the porewater pressure may become so high that many of the soil particles lose contact with each other. In such cases, the soil will have very little strength, and will behave more like a liquid than a solid - hence, the name "liquefaction". Initiation of liquefaction: