Geological and Geotechnical Characteristics of Marine Clays at the Busan New Port.

Despite a number of geotechnical investigations that have been carried out in the Busan new port area of South Korea, the local practicing engineers have been unable to deduce successfully the geotechnical properties of the clays due to their spatial variation. In the area, clay deposits, so-called Pusan clays, are unusually thick, varying from 20 m to 70 m in thickness. For this study, comprehensive geological and geotechnical investigations were carried out with sophisticated sampling techniques, in situ and laboratory tests as well as geological analyses at an additional three locations. As a result of the investigations, it was found that depositional environments are closely related to the relative changes in sea level and have different features depending on location and depth. The clays consist of soft and stiff clays in the upper and the lower layers, respectively, which are classified as normally consolidated and cemented clay. Moreover, most of the geotechnical properties undergo small changes due to their depositional environment. Information about these effects would be quite helpful to understand the spatial variation of geotechnical properties as well as the effect of sample disturbance. Some correlations which reflect the geological history of the deposts were conducted for physical indexes and mechanical properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]