Some new research on the Newmark Displacement Method for earthquake-induced landslides indicates that the method may be on the unconservative side. The Landslide Blog provides a short summary of the paper by Li et al. (2018) that was recently published in the journal Landslides. Their research was based on physical models on a shake table, comparing the results of the model experiments with a Newmark analysis. The paper should be worth a read for geotechnical engineers practicing in seismically active areas. It sounds like some additional study is needed to confirm these results and if they are true, propose different ways of analyzing earthquake-induced landslides.
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The Claremont Tunnel – Designed to Survive Fault Rupture on the Hayward Fault
The Claremont tunnel beneath the Berkeley Hills on the east side of Oakland is a water supply tunnel that serves over 800,000 customers in Richmond, Oakland, San Leandro and neighboring communities. One of the unique things about the tunnel is that it crosses the active Hayward Fault. Most of the time when you talk about designing for earthquakes you’re talking about designing to withstand the seismic forces. In this case, the designers needed the water transmission tunnel to withstand up to 7.5-ft of offset due to fault slip and still maintain a minimum level of service. (Photo credit: Sue Bednarz, Jacobs Associates, Inc. by way of Civil Engineering Magazine)
This post describes the relatively recent Claremont Tunnel Seismic Upgrade Project as reported in Civil Engineering Magazine (May 2008, v. 78, no. 5, pp 58-63, 96-97).