bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The geology beneath Washington, D.C.—The foundations of a nation’s capital
Authors: Reed John C. , Obermeier Stephen F. 
Published: May 2013

Abstract
Washington, D.C., is the first and largest planned city in the United States. The city lies along the Fall Line at the boundary between the Atlantic Coastal Plain and the Piedmont Plateau and at the head of navigation on the estuary of the Potomac River. This site combines the engineering complexities of two vastly different geologic terranes with the other complications introduced by the terraces and channels of a major river-estuary system.
The western part of the city and most of the suburbs to the west and north are on the Piedmont Plateau, an upland underlain by complexly deformed metasedimen-tary and metaigneous rocks of late Precambrian or early Paleozoic age. These crystalline rocks are mantled by soil, saprolite, and weathered rock to depths of as much as 50 m, which adds both to their geologic inscrutability and to the problems of excavation and design of structures.
The Atlantic Coastal Plain is underlain by unmetamorphosed and little deformed fluvial and marine strata of Cretaceous through Miocene age. These deposits form a prism that thickens southeastward from a wedge edge at the Fall Line to as much as 450 m in the southeastern part of the metropolitan area. Unconformities, facies changes, and variations in physical properties with age and depth of burial add spice to the life of the engineering geologist dealing with these strata.
Terrace deposits ranging in age from Miocene(?) to Holocene bevel across the contact between the Coastal Plain deposits and the crystalline rocks of the Piedmont. The oldest deposits underlie a broad, deeply dissected upland that stands at an elevation of 80 to 90 m southeast of the Fall Line; isolated outliers cap hills and interfluves at elevations of as much as 150 m northwest of the Fall Line. Lower and younger terraces flank the major drainages and occur at various levels down to the modern flood plains. Much of the central city is built on low terraces of Sangamon or Wisconsin age. These younger terraces locally fill and conceal deep bedrock channels cut by the ancestral Potomac during low stands of sea level during the Pleistocene. The terrace deposits show conspicuous differences in degree of weathering and soil development, depending on their age and physiographic position. Estuarine and marsh deposits flank the tidal reaches of the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers, and considerable parts of the central city are built on artificial fill over these deposits.
Considerable experience in underground excavation has been gained in the last decade during construction of METRO, a regional rapid transit rail system. Tunneling techniques have been developed for both crystalline rocks and Coastal Plain deposits, but cut and cover methods are generally used in the young materials, which are generally weakest. Foundation and slope stability problems are widespread in some geologic units in the metropolitan area and are locally serious. They affect structures ranging from single family dwellings to the Washington Monument.
Engineering geology of the Twin Cities area, Minnesota
Authors: Walton Matt 
Published: May 2013

Abstract
Effective geologic and geotechnical mapping in cities requires abundant subsurface data. Large data resources exist in the records of public agencies in the Twin Cities in the form of engineering test boring logs. An efficient system for acquiring and compiling these data aided by computer was developed and used to compile a number of geotechnical maps and reports on the geology, hydrology, engineering characteristics, and construction materials resources of the area. Much new information was obtained on the subsurface continuity and stratigraphy of complex Quaternary deposits, on the buried rock surface topography, and on the geology of bedrock formations.
Bedrock and Quaternary geology of the Boston area, Massachusetts
Authors: Kaye Clifford A. 
Published: May 2013

Abstract
Boston lies near the geographic center of the Boston Basin, a roughly triangular area of sedimentary and volcanic rocks of late Precambrian and Cambrian age that is surrounded by older, contemporary, and younger granites and related rocks. The basin rocks are mostly argillites, sandstones, and conglomerates interlayered with rhyolitic and spilitic volcanics and volcaniclastic sediments. The rocks are deformed into large east-west folds and are much broken by faults of several orientations. Dikes and sills abound. Deep alteration of rock to a soft clayey aggregate is widespread. The irregular bedrock surface is the result of differential glacial erosion of rocks of varying hardness, and under most of the central Boston area, bedrock is buried by thick drift. The stratigraphy of the drift is complex and includes four stratigraphically distinct tills and outwash units, representing several advances and retreats of glacial ice. These are provisionally interpreted to consist of two glacial stades of the early Wisconsinan and two of the late Wisconsinan, including a read-vance that overrode much of the Boston area about 12,000 years B.P. The effects of the geology on local engineering practices are briefly described.
Geology and deep tunnels in Chicago
Authors: Buschbach T. C. , Cyrier R. T. , Heim G. E. 
Published: May 2013

Abstract
Low-gradient streams and generally flat topography have always presented a problem of flooding within the Chicago area. As settlement expanded, the flooding produced greater and more serious results. As early as 1816, the city's leaders began major engineering work to solve these problems. The latest efforts toward a solution currently include a system of over 100 miles (161 km) of large-diameter tunnels in the Chicago area bedrock. These tunnels will intercept overflow from combined sanitary and stormwater systems and convey it to temporary storage reservoirs prior to its being pumped to sewage treatment facilities.
Geologic investigations made during a study for the tunnel sites included test drilling and coring, geophysical logging of boreholes, laboratory testing of samples, seismic surveying, and testing for groundwater. The drilling, coring, and logging furnished data that have been of considerable help in mapping and describing the individual units of Silurian and Ordovician strata of the area. The seismic survey indicated numerous closed depressions on the surface of the bedrock and also sug-gested that several faults are present with displacements of 10 to 50 feet (3 to 15 m).
Engineering geology of New Orleans
Authors: Kolb C. R. , Saucier R. T. 
Published: May 2013

Abstract
Among those who can look beyond the ubiquitous concerns of the “energy crisis,” there is a consensus that the decade of the 1980’s will witness recognition of widespread regional water shortages as perhaps the next national “crisis.” How quickly people tend to forget or ignore the water rationing episodes in several of America’s larger cities only several years ago! But the City of New Orleans and its suburbs belong in a small category of major cities in which water in overabundance is the nemesis rather than a scarce natural resource. In fact, it is no overstatement to say that the single greatest regional engineering concern is literally to keep the city from drowning. Coupling this regional concern, with the project-specific one of unusually weak foundation conditions, sets the stage for this overview of the engineering geology of the Crescent City-the location of the French Quarter, the Mardi Gras, and Canal Street (Figure 1).
In an article more than a decade ago by the junior author (Saucier, 1965), the setting of New Orleans was described as being the flattest, lowest, and geologically youngest of any major city in the United States. Quantification of this reveals a maximum relief of about 7 m within an area of 385 km2, an average elevation of about 0.4 m above mean Gulf level (Schultz and Kolb, 1954, Fig. 2), and no surficial deposits older than 2,500 years (Saucier, 1963). Elaboration on the elevation statistic reveals that over 45 percent of the urbanized area of the
Sinkholes resulting from ground-water withdrawals in carbonate terranes–an overview
Authors: Newton J. G. 
Published: May 2013

Abstract
Numerous sinkholes resulting from declines in the water table due to ground-water withdrawals in carbonate terranes have occurred in the eastern United States and elsewhere. In Alabama alone, it is estimated that more than 4,000 of these sinkholes, areas of subsidence, or related features have formed since 1900. Almost all occur where cavities develop in residual or other unconsolidated deposits overlying openings in carbonate rocks. The downward migration of the deposits into underlying openings in bedrock and the formation and collapse of resulting cavities are caused or accelerated by a decline in the water table that results in (1) loss of buoyant support, (2) increase in the velocity of movement of water, (3) water-level fluctuations at the base of unconsolidated deposits, and (4) induced recharge.
Damage due to sinkhole activity related to ground-water withdrawals has resulted in a variety of studies utilizing available scientific methods. These studies indicate that identifying the terrane in which the activity most commonly occurs and limiting large withdrawals of water from it will eliminate or minimize the problem. The terrane, youthful in nature, exhibits little karstification, is usually a lowland area, has a water table above or near the top of bedrock, and contains perennial or near-perennial streams.
Ground failure induced by ground-water withdrawal from unconsolidated sediment
Authors: Holzer Thomas L. 
Published: May 2013

Abstract
Ground failures, ranging from long tension cracks or fissures to surface faults, are caused by man-induced water-level declines in more than 14 areas in the contiguous United States. These failures are associated with land subsidence caused by compaction of underlying unconsolidated sediment. Fissures, which range in length from dekameters to kilometers, typically open only a few centimeters by displacement but are eroded by surface runoff into gullies 1 to 2 m wide and 2 to 3 m deep. Surface faults commonly attain scarp heights of 0.5 m and lengths of 1 km; the highest and longest scarps are 1 m and 16.7 km, respectively. Scarps grow by aseismic creep at rates approximately ranging from 4 to 60 mm/yr; modern fault movement is high angle and normal. Fault movement commonly correlates with seasonal water-level fluctuations, and examples of seasonal water-level recoveries halting fault movement have been reported. The greatest economic impact from ground failure is in the Houston-Galveston, Texas, metropolitan region where more than 86 surface faults have caused millions of dollars of damage and losses of property value.
Most ground failures probably are caused by localized differential compaction, although this mechanism has not been demonstrated everywhere. Earth fissures formed by this mechanism are caused by stretching related to bending of the overburden that overlies the differentially compacting zone. Surface faults form when differential compaction is discrete across preexisting faults. Fissures that form complex polygonal patterns probably are caused by tension induced by capillary stresses in the zone above a declining water table. Ground failures can be predicted either by determining potential areas of differential compaction or by monitoring surface deformation in areas of ongoing water-level decline. Potential ground-failure sites can be resolved by either technique to within a few dekameters.
Neotectonics in the southeastern United States with emphasis on the Charleston, South Carolina, area
Authors: Talwani Pradeep 
Published: May 2013

Abstract
A study of neotectonics in the southeastern United States was carried out by examining a variety of parameters, including the state of stress, pattern of seismicity, ground deformation, and estimation of recurrence rate for larger events. The direction of maximum horizontal stress (Snmax) was found to be uniform over the region, oriented in an ENE-WSW direction, and due to plate-tectonic forces. The current, historic, and prehistoric seismicity was found to occur in local clusters that displayed spatial stationarity over the historical period (300 yr). Ground deformation inferred from relev-eling, geoarcheological, and shallow sedimentary data was found to occur both on a regional and a local scale, the rates of deformation varying over the region. Statistical and paleoseismological data suggest a recurrence period of about 1,000 to 2,000 yr for the larger events in the Charleston, South Carolina, area.
These observations lead to the conclusion that neotectonic activity is episodic and is due to the interaction of a uniform stress field with local, preexisting zones of weakness. In the current episode of neotectonic activity (&gt;300 yr and &lt; 2 m.y.), most of the dominant patterns of seismicity display spatial stationarity; thus, the current distribution of activity can be used for assessing seismic hazards.
Neotectonic movement and earthquake assessment in the eastern United States
Authors: Barosh Patrick J. 
Published: May 2013

Abstract
Neotectonic movement in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains results from various superimposed intraplate adjustments related to movement in the North Atlantic Basin and glacial rebound. Some movements, such as slight southward tilt in the north from waning rebound and northward tilt of the entire region, appear aseismic. Others form a rectilinear grid pattern of zones of fractures and vertical movement and coincide with the distribution of seismicity. Most seismic source areas occur along northwest-trending fracture zones, which commonly have some right-lateral strike-slip displacement. They have broad, northeast-trending belts of rising highlands and sinking lowlands and are concentrated at their intersections. These belts are the Atlantic Coast Lowland, Southern and Central Appalachian Highland, Arkansas-St. Lawrence Lowland, and Mid-continent Arch. The northwest-trending fracture zones also apparently control the positions of northwest-trending synclinal basins—embayments—on the coastal plains and continue seaward as the larger transform fracture zones. The embayments are relatively subsiding and have significant associated seismicity. Some earthquakes also occur along north-trending extensional faults, whose movement seems related to lateral displacement on northwest-trending fracture zones, and a few occur along northeast-trending faults at structural intersections. The fracture zones continue into the western United States; the difference between “western” and “eastern” seismicity is more of degree than kind.
Earthquakes in the eastern United States thus are shown to be controlled by neotectonic movement and structural zones despite the lack of recent surface faulting, and a firm basis exists for seismic zoning.
The concept of ‘reasonable care’ on unstable hillsides
Authors: Olshansky Robert B. , Rogers J. David 
Published: May 2013

Abstract
The old common-law rules of strict liability with regard to earth movement have given way to the more modern legal doctrine of “reasonable care” in the California court system, which hears the largest number of earth movement-related cases in the United States. Reasonable care doctrine is more case specific, and emanates from the legal definition of “negligence,” or the exercise of responsible conduct for which a professional is always held accountable, regardless of liability-limitation agreements. Three landmark California decisions are briefly profiled, including the most recent, in which the California State Supreme Court ruled that it is common knowledge that all fill embankments will settle, just as rotten trees or dilapidated buildings can be expected to collapse. The chapter concludes with the implications for geopractitioners in today's ever-evolving legal climate.
The Mameyes, Puerto Rico, landslide disaster of October 7, 1985
Authors: Jibson Randall W. 
Published: May 2013

Abstract
From October 5–8,1985, a tropical wave centered about 25 km northeast of Ponce, Puerto Rico, produced as much as 560 mm of rainfall in 24 hours and as much as 70 mm in one hour. This extraordinarily heavy rainfall triggered a rock-block slide that destroyed much of the Mameyes residential area, on the northwest outskirts of Ponce.
The Mameyes landslide failed in three distinct phases between 3:00 and 4:00 a.m. (local time) on October 7, 1985. The first two phases of sliding involved translational sliding of two 12-m-thick slabs of calcareous-sandstone bedrock along bedding-plane surfaces parallel to the slope surface. The third phase of sliding involved the toppling failure of a block that disaggregated and formed a rock fall on the western part of the slide. Subsidiary flow failures onto the toe and from the downstream face of the toe were triggered by the heavy rainfall and the rupture of a water pipe that emptied as much as 4 million liters of water onto the slide.
The Mameyes landslide is approximately triangular in plan view; the maximum width and length are both about 250 m. The total area of the landslide is ~35,000 m2, and the slab of bedrock and soil that failed is about 12 m thick and comprises ~300,000 m3. The landslide moved downslope 30 m, parallel to the 17°–24° bedrock dip. At most, an estimated 120 homes were destroyed by the landslide, and at least 129 people were killed, though only 39 bodies were recovered. This death toll is the largest from a single landslide in North American history.
Calculations of the prelandslide slope stability at the site indicate that when the water table was below the potential shear surface, the factor of safety against failure was about 1.26. A water table about 6 m above the shear surface, which would saturate half the thickness of the slide block, reduces the factor of safety to 1.0. A water table at this level is a reasonable result of the conditions preceding failure.
The landslide area has been stabilized by engineering measures and was developed as a memorial park to the landslide victims.
Landslide failure at 20510 Callon Drive, Topanga, California, March 1978
Authors: Keene Arthur G. 
Published: May 2013

Abstract
During the months between December 1, 1977, and March 31, 1978, 51.7 (~131 cm) of rain fell in the area of Topanga Canyon, California. This winter rain appears to have been the underlying cause of many landslides, slump debris flows, and mudflows. One such failure occurred at 20510 Callon Drive, Topanga. This site consisted of a 3:1 northwest-facing slope covered by 4 to 20 ft (~1.2-60 m) of colluvium and soil over Topanga sandstone, shale, and basalt—apparently in place, as indicated by a local consulting firm. The area containing the site was mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey as a landslide. The landslide’s validity was discounted by the consultant geologist on the basis of his field investigation and five exploratory trenches. Lacking evidence of an existing landslide, the consultant recommended that slabs on grade be designed for expansive soil conditions, and footing be extended through the creep-prone soil to derive support in bedrock. The consultant observed that, prior to sliding, the site was affected by minor slumping in the road cut along Callon Drive.
By December 1977, the owner noticed the effects of instability. Movement worsened to the point of general failure at a rate of 2 to 4 in (~5-10 cm) per day. The site was essentially destroyed due to landslide movement, and by a mysterious fire, by March 27, 1978. Application for a building permit was made on January 16, 1976. Orders to demolish were given by June 2,1978; this constitutes a very short period of service for the structure.
Ground failure consisted of a block rotational slide, ~200 ft in length by 100 ft wide (~60 × 30 m). Its thickness is 10 to 20 ft (~3-6 m) with a 6-ft-high (~1.8 m) scarp inclined about 60°. The foot terminates on the south side of Callon Drive and above the road surface.
Two 25-ft-deep (~6 m) seepage pits were emplaced near the roadside, a location not recommended by the consultant. Instability resulted from saturation of creep-prone colluvium and soil mantle and underlying fragmental Conejo volcanic breccia, which is mixed locally with sandstone and siltstone blocks and debris from the Cold Creek Member of the Topanga Group Formation.
Three separate lawsuits ensued against the consultant, the builder, and the County of Los Angeles. Ultimate damage awarded to the owner amounted to $135,000.
Thistle landslide
Authors: Slosson James E. , Yoakum Delmar D. , Shuirman Gerard 
Published: May 2013

Abstract
In April 1983, Spanish Fork Canyon, Utah, was engulfed by a massive landslide that dammed Spanish Fork Creek, creating a lake. The slide pushed and finally buried sections of the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad line and U.S. Highways 6, 50, and 89, which for decades had been located in Spanish Fork Canyon. When motion of this massive debris flow and/or landslide complex finally ceased, almost the entire 6,800-ft-long (2,040 m) and 800-1,100-ft-wide (240–330 m) mass, more than 200 ft (60 m) thick had moved. Spanish Fork Canyon, ~600 ft (180 m) wide at the location of the landslide, was filled to a depth of ~220 ft (66 m), causing a lake to form on the upstream side.
Data indicated that small displacements at the toe of the slide, adjacent to the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad, had been recorded since the early 1900s. Motion was correlative with years of above-average precipitation. Thus, the extraordi-narily high precipitation of 1983, which was only ~2.2% higher than the previous record high precipitation of 1875–1876, added sufficiently to the ground-water regime to cause slow motion to develop in early April, followed by rapid acceleration in mid-April. Borings placed in 1984 indicated the existence of an artesian condition, the pressure level ranging from 25 to 65 ft (7.5 to 19.5 m) above ground surface near the toe of the slide. Other borings drilled at a later date provided samples from which strength parameters were determined. Test data indicate strength as low as 17.5° angle of internal friction and 210 lb/ft2 cohesion.
Information obtained from all of these studies strongly suggests that had a surface-drainage system with horizontal (subsurface) drains been constructed prior to failure, landslide motion could have been prevented. Analyses indicate that a readily achievable lowering of the hydrostatic pressure on the slide planes would have produced a factor of safety greater than 1.0.