Investigation of soil structure in Uzungöl settlement area by Shallow Seismic Methods

This study was performed to relase the soil structure of Uzungol district of Trabzon city, a vocational area, where had been formed by a historical landslide and lake deposits and to evaluate its geotechnical characters by using seismic methods which are noninvasive, rapidly applicable and provide substantial information about the structure of investigated ground in a short time. For this purpose, seismic refraction, active-passive surface waves and seismic reflections in 16 profiles were gathered on four sub-areas and and evaluated by current favorable numerical methods. Although it considerably varies between profiles, the depth of basement, depositional base of deposits, was averagely obtained as 13.5-15m at upper elevation and 25-50m at lower elevation of the study area. Dynamic elastic parameters and average shear wave velocity of the upper 30m (VS30) of soil in the area were calculated. The soil classification of study area was interpreted as locally Z1 and Z2 class for TEC, B and C class for EC-8 code, C and D class for NERHP. According to VS30 (394-530m/s), ground amplification and predominant vibration period of the study area are respectively obtained as 1.5-2.1 and 0.23-0.30sec. On the other hand, all deposits are characterized by stiffness-solid soil, excluding arable soil from surface to a few meters depth. In addition, the first meters of bedrock shows weathered character, but deeper parts are very compact and hard. Therefore, a scientific infrastructure has been formed to carry out the engineering projects to be planned for Uzungol settletment safely and without damaging the environment.