Hydrocompaction Considerations in Sinkhole Investigations

Hydrocompaction General Hydrocompaction also referred to as hydro-collapse is a process of settlement and resulting volume change that occurs in fine sand with minor amounts of silt and clay. The term hydrocompaction will be used in this paper to describe this process. Hydrocompaction is driven primarily by the infiltration of water into the soil fabric. During wet periods, the continuing infiltration of water into the soil fabric produces a redistribution of soil particles causing the soil to settle while during dry periods settlement occurs (although to a lesser extent in west central Florida) because of an increase in effective stress (Figure 1).