Abstract

Seasonal ground movements, particularly subsidence and heave, present a great challenge for the design of roadways, parking lots, underground utility lines, and buried culverts. The US Geological Survey has been operating 13 deep borehole extensometers in Houston, Texas, for land subsidence monitoring since the 1970s and the early 1980s. The half-century extensometer datasets provide direct and continuous measurements of seasonal ground movements in the vertical direction. The Houston global positioning system (GPS) network (HoustonNet) provides independent measures for the timely evaluation of extensometer data. According to this study, shallow expansive soils can induce up to 4 cm (peak-to-trough) seasonal subsidence and heave, and deep sediments can further produce up to 2 cm seasonal subsidence and heave. The latter is primarily caused by the seasonal fluctuations of hydraulic heads in the lower Chicot and upper-Evangeline aquifers, varying considerably over time and space. The results from this study are important for determining potential vertical movement (PVM) for the design of pavements and shallow foundations and for the optimization of groundwater management in the Houston region.

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call

Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.