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Triaxial Tests on Liquefiable Soils
The Farmington Siding landslide complex, Davis County, Utah, has long been recognized as an area of recurrent, prehistoric liquefaction-induced ground deformation characterized by flow and lateral spread. Test holes drilled by the United States Geological Survey at this site indicate that the liquefiable deposit in the area is comprised of a silty-sand (denoted herein as Bonneville sand. The present study examines the mechanical response of Bonneville sand with respect to liquefaction based on experimental data from triaxial tests. The experiments are conducted on reconstituted specimens collected from a surface-exposure of Bonneville sediments in Farmington. Water-pluviation technique is being used for sample preparation in order to reproduce the lake environment in which the sediments were geologically formed; thus, the observed mechanical response is representative for the ground conditions associated with the occurrence of first-time liquefaction due to past earthquakes at this site. The experimental program consists of series of two-phase triaxial tests, with the first phase represented by cyclic loading to trigger liquefaction of the soil element. The second phase (i.e., post-cyclic phase) of the test is either an undrained monotonic shearing phase to determine the post-liquefaction steady state strength, or a dissipation phase to evaluate the sample volumetric change versus the decrease in excess pore water pressure. The capability of a fully automated triaxial testing equipment to control the rate of excess pore pressure dissipation from a liquefied soil element was essential in obtaining accurate relationships for the later category of post-cyclic triaxial tests. The experimental results of this study provide insight into the mechanism of liquefaction flow-slides associated with past earthquake activity in the region.

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Opaque Topaz Found in the Topaz Mountain Area, Utah

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