Land subsidence session

Abstract

A session on land subsidence caused by withdrawal of groundwater was held December 10, 1985, in San Francisco, Calif., at the AGU Fall Meeting. The symposium was organized by William E. Strange (National Geodetic Survey, Rockville, Md.) and Thomas L. Holzer (U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Menlo Park, Calif.) and was cosponsored by the AGU Geodesy and Hydrology sections. Nine papers were presented on topics that ranged from evaluations of the suitability of the new satellite‐based Global Positioning System (GPS) to theoretical analyses of land subsidence.T. N. Narasimhan (Lawrence Berkeley Laboratories, Berkeley, Calif.) introduced the general subject of subsidence with a review of relevant physical processes. Compaction, although conceptually simple, involves several complexities, including plastic deformation and translation of deep‐seated deformation through the overburden. Sashi Mathur (Tarleton State University, Stephenville, Tex.), in a paper coauthored with M. Yavuz Corapcioglu (City College of New York, New York), analyzed deformation in the unsaturated zone above a falling water table. Their theoretical formulation was able to reproduce results from laboratory studies of sand columns.