Fill Placement on Slopes Underlain by Franciscan Mélange
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 137, Issue 3
Abstract
Distress in two housing developments was caused by a deep bedrock landslide triggered by placement of a large upslope fill. The large fill was placed to create a visual barrier between the upslope development and downslope housing developments and to balance the cut and fill quantities for the upslope site. This case history presents some of the ramifications of fill placement on natural slopes surrounded by urban areas, such as overstressing underlying weak material that may exist below the depth of borings typically conducted for single family residences and office complexes; the importance of surface and subsurface information in a formation known locally as Franciscan complex/mélange (which is a block-in-matrix rock formation common to the area); the shear behavior of serpentinite, which is part of the Franciscan complex; and the importance of natural and man-made changes to a slope, such as rainfall, surficial grading, home construction, and fill placement. It also illustrates the importance of locating the critical slope cross section before construction and the proper use of back-analyses in a landslide investigation.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The contents and views in this paper are the writers’ and do not necessarily reflect those of any of the developments, developers, homeowners, consultants, regulatory agencies or personnel, or anyone else involved in this project.
References
ASTM. (1999). “Standard test method for torsional ring shear test to determine drained residual shear strength of cohesive soils,” West Conshohocken, PA.
Berkland, J. O. (1969). “Geology of the Novato quadrangle, Marin County, California.” M.Sc. thesis, Dept. of Geology, San Jose State Univ., San Jose, CA.
Blake, M. C., Jr., et al. (1974). “Preliminary geologic map of Marin and San Francisco Counties and parts of Alameda, Contra Costa, and Sonoma Counties.” United States Geological Survey (USGS) Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF 574, USGS, Reston, VA.
Clarke, D. D. (1904). “A phenomenal land slide.” Trans. Am. Soc. Civ. Eng., 53, Paper No. 984, 322–412.
Cowan, D. S., and Mansfield, C. F. (1970). “Serpentinite flows on Joaquin Ridge, southern coast ranges, California.” Geol. Soc. Am. Bull., 81(9), 2615–2628.
Cruden, D. M., and Varnes, D. J. (1996). “Landslide types and processes.” Special Rep. 247: Landslides: Investigation and mitigation, Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, Washington, DC, 36–75.
Dickinson, W. R. (1966). “Table Mountain serpentinite extrusion in California coast ranges.” Geol. Soc. Am. Bull., 77(5), 451–472.
Duncan, J. M., and Stark, T. D. (1992). “Soil strengths from back-analysis of slope failures.” Proc., Specialty Conf. on Stability and Performance of Slopes and Embankments II, ASCE, Berkeley, CA, 890–904.
Goodman, R. E. (1993). Engineering geology: Rock in engineering construction, Wiley, New York.
Goodman, R. E., and Ahlgren, C. S. (2000). “Evaluating safety of concrete gravity dam on weak rock: Scott Dam.” J. Geotech. Eng., 126(5), 429–442.
Holtz, R. D., and Kovacs, W. D. (1981). An introduction to geotechnical engineering, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
Medley, E. W., and Goodman, R. E. (1994). “Estimating the block volumetric proportion of mélanges and similar block-in-matrix rocks (bimrocks).” Proc., 1st North American Rock Mechanics Conf. (NARMS), Austin, TX, P. P. Nelson and S. E. Laubach, eds., Balkema, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 851–858.
Mesri, G., and Shahien, M. (2003). “Residual shear strength mobilized in first-time slope failures.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 129(1), 12–31.
Moiseyev, A. N. (1970). “Late serpentinite movements in the California coast ranges: New evidence and its implications.” Geol. Soc. Am. Bull., 81(6), 1721–1732.
Phipps, S. P. (1984). “Ophiolitic olistostromes in the basal Great Valley sequence, Napa County, northern California coast ranges.” Geol. Soc. Am. Bull., Special Paper 198, 103–125.
Rice, S. J. (1975). “Geology for planning, Novato area, Marin County, California.” Open-File Rep. 76-02, California Div. of Mines and Geology, Sacramento, CA.
Scholl, E. W., von Huene, R., Vallier, T. L., and Howell, D. G. (1980). “Sedimentary masses and concepts about tectonic processes at underthrust ocean margins.” Geology, 8(12), 564–568.
Skempton, A. W. (1970). “First-time slides in over-consolidated clays.” Geotechnique, 20(3), 320–324.
Skempton, A. W. (1977). “Slope stability of cuttings in brown London clay.” Proc., 9th Int. Conf. on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, ICSMFE, Tokyo, 261–270.
Spencer, E. (1967). “A method of analysis of the stability of embankments assuming parallel inter-slice forces.” Geotechnique, 17(1), 11–26.
Stark, T. D., Arellano, D., Hillman, R., Hughes, R., Hillebrandt, D., and Joyal, N. (2005a). “Effect of toe excavation on a deep-seated landslide.” J. Perform. Constr. Facil., 19(3), 244–255.
Stark, T. D., Choi, H., and McCone, S. M. (2005b). “Shear strengths for analysis of landslides.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 131(5), 575–588.
Stark, T. D., and Eid, H. T. (1992). “Comparison of field and laboratory residual shear strengths,” Geotechnical Special Pub. No. 31, Proc., Specialty Conf. Stability and Performance of Slopes and Embankments II, ASCE, New York, 876–889.
Stark, T. D., and Eid, H. T. (1993). “Modified Bromhead ring shear apparatus.” Geotech. Test. J., 16(1), 100–107.
Stark, T. D., and Eid, H. T. (1994). “Drained residual strength of cohesive soils.” J. Geotech. Eng., 120(5), 856–871.
Stark, T. D., and Eid, H. T. (1997). “Slope stability analyses in stiff fissured clays.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 123(4), 335–343.
Wakabayashi, J. (1999). “The Franciscan Complex, San Francisco Bay area: A record of subduction complex processes.” Proc., Centennial Meeting, Cordilleran Section, Geological Society of America: Geologic Field Trips in Northern California, Geological Society of America, 119, 1–7.
XSTABL Version 5. [Computer software]. Moscow, ID, Interactive Software Designs.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
© 2011 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Oct 2, 2009
Accepted: May 18, 2010
Published online: Jun 1, 2010
Published in print: Mar 1, 2011
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.