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Published October 27, 2010 | public
Journal Article

Liquefaction caused by the 2009 Olancha, California (USA), M5.2 earthquake

Abstract

The October 3, 2009 (01:16:00 UTC), Olancha M5.2 earthquake caused extensive liquefaction as well as permanent horizontal ground deformation within a 1.2 km^2 area earthquake in Owens Valley in eastern California (USA). Such liquefaction is rarely observed during earthquakes of M ≤ 5.2. We conclude that subsurface conditions, not unusual ground motion, were the primary factors contributing to the liquefaction. The liquefaction occurred in very liquefiable sands at shallow depth (< 2 m) in an area where the water table was near the land surface. Our investigation is relevant to both geotechnical engineering and geology. The standard engineering method for assessing liquefaction potential, the Seed–Idriss simplified procedure, successfully predicted the liquefaction despite the small earthquake magnitude. The field observations of liquefaction effects highlight a need for caution by earthquake geologists when inferring prehistoric earthquake magnitudes from paleoliquefaction features because small magnitude events may cause such features.

Additional Information

© 2010 Elsevier B.V. Received 16 January 2010; revised 8 July 2010; accepted 14 July 2010. Available online 29 July 2010. We thank Grace A. McCarley-Holder and Earl Wilson of the Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District for help with logistics and sampling; Ross W. Boulanger, Wayne R. Thatcher, and John C. Tinsley, III, for constructive reviews; Coyn C. Criley for the grain-size analyses; and Hamid Haddadi and Christopher D. Stephens for help in retrieving the permanent accelerograph records.

Additional details

Created:
August 22, 2023
Modified:
October 20, 2023