15/02/2019

Agenda

Sub-surface water
Lecture 4 Geological hazards

Factors affecting the permeability of a sandstone formation

POROSITY
% volume of pore space in a rock
Grain size
PERMEABILITY Sorting
Capacity of a rock to allow the passage of fluids Shape of grains
into or through it without impairing its structure Interconnections between pore spaces (tortuosity)
Consolidation
Coefficient of permeability (k): flow through unit area
of rock in unit time with unit hydraulic head
Cementation
Temperature
Units: m/s or m/day Stratification within formation
Presence of discontinuities
Groundwater flow rates usually less than k values:

Primary permeability
is the permeability AQUIFER
of intact rock

This is usually several orders of magnitude

A formation which is sufficiently porous to store water
less than the in situ permeability
(secondary permeability) and
Secondary permeability is affected by
frequency of discontinuities. Their permeable enough to allow water to flow
continuity, dimensions and the presence
of infilling material are important in this context.
through it in economic quantities

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POTENTIOMETRIC SURFACE
An imaginary surface defined by the level at which
CONFINED AQUIFERS water stands in wells.
The height above the aquifer depends
on pressure in the aquifer.
UNCONFINED AQUIFERS CONFINED AQUIFER
A buried aquifer enclosed by beds of low permeability

PERCHED AQUIFERS UNCONFINED AQUIFER

An aquifer exposed at ground level

After M. Price, 1991

Introducing groundwater

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Landslide

Geological hazards

Landslides
Sink holes

Sink hole

Volcanic and
earthquake hazards

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Lahar: A volcanic debris flow.

Flow speeds can be 50-60 km/hr.

Can occur when:

Heavy rain washes down unconsolidated ash from earlier eruptions
Earthquakes cause slope failure in poorly consolidated ash and clay
Eruption causes crater lake to spill down sides of volcano
Eruption causes rapid melting of snow and ice

Lahar can quickly thicken downslope

Columbia: Nevado del Ruiz, Andes

Summit covered by snow and ice

Town of Armero built on old lahar deposit.

1985: small eruption of pumice and ash landed on

ice cap.
Sudden melting.
Melt water swept down Lagunillas valley
at ~60 km/hr.
Created debris flow up to ~30m high.

~20,000 people killed.

TECTONIC EARTHQUAKES
Plate boundary
Pyroclastic flow: fine grained ash to volcanic bombs Intraplate
Flow rates can exceed 100 km/hr VOLCANIC EARTHQUAKES
Plate boundary
If flow is dominated by pumice, Intraplate
resulting deposit is an ignimbrite
(fire cloud rock)
COLLAPSE EARTHQUAKES
(eg Mazama ignimbrite, Crater Lake, USA) Underground collapse: Caverns and mines
Landslides
Nuées ardentes (glowing cloud) deposit EXPLOSION EARTHQUAKES
volcanic blocks and ash denser then pumice Chemical
Nuclear
RESERVOIR-TRIGGERED EARTHQUAKES

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Casualties and damage from seismic

disasters are everywhere on the
increase. Major factors are:

Population growth
Shifts in land use

Elastic rebound theory of earthquakes (after H.F. Reid)

BODY WAVES

P-waves: Ground particles move parallel

to direction of wave travel

S-waves: Ground particles move normal

to direction of wave travel

SURFACE WAVES

Rayleigh waves: Ground particles move

in retrograde ellipses in plane normal
to surface

Love Waves: Ground particles move

parallel to ground surface

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Surface waves become dispersed.

Long period waves travel faster

(normal dispersion) because their
speed is governed by rock properties
at greater depths below the surface
where P-wave and S-wave speeds
and rock densities are normally higher.

HAZARDS FROM EARTHQUAKES

Ground shaking
Falling material
Structural collapse
Differential ground settlement
Ground lurching and displacement along faults
Landslides
Soil liquefaction
Avalanches
Tsunamis
Seiches
Floods from dam and levee failures
Fires
Toxic contamination (including radioactive material)

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Effect of soil liquefaction: Niigata Sand boils: Christchurch, NZ: 2011

Liquefaction susceptibility map: San Francisco region

(USGS)
RICHTER LOCAL
MAGNITUDE
Logarithm to base 10 of
maximum seismic wave
amplitude in microns recorded
on a seismograph at a
distance of 100 km from the
epicentre