Liquefaction-Induced Lateral Spreading in Near-Fault Regions during the 1999 Chi-Chi, Taiwan Earthquake
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 132, Issue 12
Abstract
We document and analyze incidents of liquefaction-induced lateral ground deformation at five sites located in the near-fault region of the 1999 Chi-Chi Taiwan earthquake. Each of the lateral spreads involved cyclic mobility of young alluvial soils towards a free face at creek channels. In each case, the lateral spreading produced relatively modest lateral displacements (approximately ) in parts of the spreads not immediately adjacent to channel slopes. For each site, we present displacement vectors across the spread features, which are based on mapping performed within three weeks of the earthquake. We review the results of detailed subsurface exploration conducted at each site, including cone penetration test soundings, borings with standard penetration testing, and laboratory index tests. We back-analyze the field displacements using recent empirical and semiempirical models and find that the models generally overestimate the observed ground displacements. Possible causes of the models’ overprediction bias include partial drainage of the liquefied soils during shaking, low but measurable plasticity of some of the soils’ fines fraction, and the absence of nonspread sites in the empirical databases used to develop existing empirical and semi-empirical lateral spread displacement prediction models.
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Acknowledgments
This project was sponsored by the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research (PEER) Center’s Program of Applied Earthquake Engineering Research of Lifeline Systems, supported by the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission and the Pacific Gas and Electric Company. This work made use of the Earthquake Engineering Research Center’s Shared Facilities, supported by the National Science Foundation under Award #EEC-9701568. The support of the California Department of Transportation’s PEARL program is also acknowledged. In addition, data from the National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering (NCREE) through a memorandum of understanding between NCREE and PEER was used in this research and is acknowledged. The manuscript was improved as a result of comments from Professor Ross Boulanger from UC Davis and two anonymous reviewers.
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Information
Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 132 • Issue 12 • December 2006
Pages: 1549 - 1565
Copyright
© 2006 ASCE.
History
Received: Jun 28, 2005
Accepted: Apr 26, 2006
Published online: Dec 1, 2006
Published in print: Dec 2006
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