Ground failure induced by ground-water withdrawal from unconsolidated sediment

Abstract

Ground failures, ranging from long tension cracks or fissures to surface faults, are caused by man-induced water-level declines in more than 14 areas in the contiguous United States. These failures are associated with land subsidence caused by compaction of underlying unconsolidated sediment. Fissures, which range in length from dekameters to kilometers, typically open only a few centimeters by displacement but are eroded by surface runoff into gullies 1 to 2 m wide and 2 to 3 m deep. Surface faults commonly attain scarp heights of 0.5 m and lengths of 1 km; the highest and longest scarps are 1 m and 16.7 km, respectively. Scarps grow by aseismic creep at rates approximately ranging from 4 to 60 mm/yr; modern fault movement is high angle and normal. Fault movement commonly correlates with seasonal water-level fluctuations, and examples of seasonal water-level recoveries halting fault movement have been reported. The greatest economic impact from ground failure is in the Houston-Galveston, Texas, metropolitan region where more than 86 surface faults have caused millions of dollars of damage and losses of property value. Most ground failures probably are caused by localized differential compaction, although this mechanism has not been demonstrated everywhere. Earth fissures formed by this mechanism are caused by stretching related to bending of the overburden that overlies the differentially compacting zone. Surface faults form when differential compaction is discrete across preexisting faults. Fissures that form complex polygonal patterns probably are caused by tension induced by capillary stresses in the zone above a declining water table. Ground failures can be predicted either by determining potential areas of differential compaction or by monitoring surface deformation in areas of ongoing water-level decline. Potential ground-failure sites can be resolved by either technique to within a few dekameters.

Land subsidence, Ground Fissures and Buried Faults: InSAR Monitoring of Ciudad Guzmán (Jalisco, Mexico)

“…A comparison between satellite images of the urban area of CG shows that the urban layout has not changed from 2005 to 2013, suggesting that there is no direct connection with the detected subsidence and fissuring. Furthermore, natural processes such as isostatic sediment loading or consolidation of weak quaternary deposits, which presents typical rates of few millimeters per year [44], cannot explain the detected rapid subsidence rates.…”

Land subsidence and recovery in the Albuquerque Basin, New Mexico, 1993–2014

“…For a review of the history of the aquitard-drainage model, see Holzer (1984), for a more complete description of aquifer-system compaction, see Poland (1984), and for a review and selected case studies of land subsidence caused by aquifer-system compaction in the United States, see Galloway and others (1999).…”

“…The greater the deformation rate, the more easily the lineament can be identified as a steep spatial gradient of displacements on the interferogram, and thus facilitate a more robust identification of groundwaterflow barriers in the InSAR imagery because the differential uplift or subsidence on either side of the lineament is more pronounced. The identification of these features is important because the tensional stresses that develop near the region of differential land-surface displacement can promote the formation of earth fissures and (or) motion on surface faults (Holzer, 1984) and create hazards for infrastructure and land use. Earth fissures and (or) motion on surface faults associated with land subsidence caused by groundwater-level declines have been identified in many locations in the Southwest including Arizona, California, Nevada, Texas, and Utah, and in the Mimbres Basin in New Mexico (Holzer and Pampeyan, 1981;Holzer, 1984;Mueller, 1991a, 1991b;Haneberg and Friesen, 1995;Bell and Helm, 1998;Holzer and Galloway, 2005;Lund and others, 2005;Conway, 2016).…”

Inverse modeling of interbed storage parameters using land subsidence observations, Antelope Valley, California

“…[2] Land subsidence caused by the compaction of susceptible aquifer systems has been related to groundwater level declines accompanying the development of groundwater resources [e.g., Tolman and Poland, 1940;Riley, 1969;Poland et al, 1975;Bell and Price, 1991;Holzer, 1984Holzer, , 1979Ikehara and Phillips, 1994;Galloway et al, 1998a]. A large number of case studies have documented the global scale of the problem [e.g., Galloway et al, 1999;Johnson, 1991;Barends et al, 1995].…”