Ground failures in the form of liquefaction, loss of bearing capacity and soil softening have been observed during the 1999 Marmara (Turkey) earthquake. Research to understand the failure phenomena has been carried out since the earthquakes. This paper attempts to provide explanations to the liquefaction failure of silts in seismic conditions. Findings from a large amount of data collected in the city of Adapazari on the physical and mechanical properties of soils is presented. A geomorphological map of the city has shown that there are surprising horizontal and vertical variations of the facies due to the activity of rivers in the past. Cases of liquefaction appear to have concentrated in former backswamp areas where silts and sandy silts were deposited by crevasse splays. Properties of the soils in zones of liquefaction and non-liquefaction have been determined down to a reasonable depth by measuring the average size, clay content and liquidity index as well as cone penetration resistances with porewater pressures to discover that there is significant discrepancy among those profiles susceptible to liquefaction and non-liquefying deposits. A set of "Adapazari Criteria" is proposed which is intended to improve over the "Chinese Criteria" and is simple enough to be universally applicable. This classification is similar to the existing criteria but emphasizes more on the clay content in addition to measuring the liquid limit and the liquidity index as well as the average size.

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Soil reinforcement with natural and man-made fibers is one of the techniques to improve a number of mechanical and physical properties of soils. Although basalt originated fibers are currently being used for concrete, it is not an easy task to find a source in literature concerning the use of basalt fibers for soil improvement. In this study, basalt fibers have been used for this new aim. This study is an investigation into evaluation of the increase in soil strength, which is reinforced, in different percentages, by basalt chopped fibers. A silty soil sample has been chosen for this study and has been mixed, with 6, 12, and 24 mm long basalt fiber at varying contents. The unconsolidated undrained triaxial tests show that the addition of 24 mm long fibers into soil gives the maximum improvement in strength and the optimum fiber content (by dry weight of soil) is 1.5%.

The inclusions of geosynthetic materials (fibers, geomembranes and geotextiles) is a new improvement technique that ensures uniformity in the soil during construction. The use of tension resisting discreet inclusions like polypropylene fibers has attracted a significant amount of attention these past years in the improvement of soil performance in a cost-efficient manner. A series of direct shear box tests were conducted on unreinforced and reinforced Chlef sand with different contents of fibers (0, 0.25, 0.5 and0.75%) in order to study the mechanical behavior of sand reinforced with polypropylene fibers. Samples were prepared at three different relative densities 30%, 50% and 80% representing loose, medium dense and dense states,respectively, and performed at normal stresses of 50, 100 and 200 kPa. The experimental results show that the mechanical characteristics are improved with the addition of polypropylene fibers. The inclusion of randomly distributed fibers has a significant effect on the shear strength and dilation of sandy soil. The increase in strength is a function of fiber content, where it has been shown that the mechanical characteristics improve with the increase in fiber content up to 0.75%, this improvement is more significant at a higher normal stress and relative density.

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