Deep-Sea Sediments pp 209-244 | Cite as
Consolidation of Marine Clays and Carbonates
Abstract
Consolidation tests performed on a large number of marine sediments from the Gulf of Mexico indicate that high void ratio marine clay sediments exhibit a linear void ratio-pressure relation in contrast to the non-linear relation as ordinarily observed in clay soils. The use of this linear relation will provide a more accurate evaluation of preconsolidation pressures of marine sediments.
Testing of deeply buried marine sediments obtained from the Deep-Sea Drilling Project indicates that most Gulf of Mexico sediments tested were underconsolidated and those from the Pacific Ocean were both normally and underconsolidated.
Consolidation testing of carbonate sediments from the Gulf of Mexico and Bahama Bank indicate that fine-grained carbonate muds have consolidation characteristics similar to those of silty clays. The main difference between noncarbonate silty clays and fine-grained carbonate sediments is that under equal loads the carbonate sediments do not consolidate to as low a final void ratio as noncarbonates.
The permeability of the sediments undergoing consolidation testing were determined by the use of the time-compression curves. The relationship between void ratio and coefficient of permeability was found to be k = 10−9 e5 cm/sec.
Keywords
Void Ratio Carbonate Sediment Excess Pore Pressure Abyssal Plain Marine ClayPreview
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