Gravelly Soil Liquefaction after the 2016 Ecuador Earthquake

Resumen

The Mw 7.8 Muisne-Pedernales, Ecuador, earthquake on April 16, 2016, produced significant damage through the northwest coast of Ecuador. Important state infrastructure was seriously affected, including one of the major seaports in the country, the Port of Manta, located in the city that bears its name. This paper focuses on the geotechnical exploration, site characterization, and analyses performed for the marginal wharf's embankment of the port, where clear evidence of liquefaction was observed. Laboratory results showed that the embankment was composed of gravelly sand and sandy gravels, which limited the applicability of common exploration techniques, such as SPT and CPTu tests. Subsequently, liquefaction triggering evaluations were performed based on Vs and the Chinese dynamic penetration test (DPT), which can account for the large gravel content in the soils. The results of this evaluation are presented and compared with field observations showing that these methods correctly identified the potential for liquefaction in the embankment.