A magnitude 9.0 earthquake by the Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ) is believed to be capable of causing widespread soil liquefaction in the Pacific Northwest (PACNW). Affected infrastructures include highway bridges specifically the ones crossing the Columbia and Willamette rivers and along the I-5 corridor. The need to study the effects of soil liquefaction in the PACNW has been raised by a group of experts in liquefaction and stakeholders from involved states (DOGAMI/OSU 2013). 

To fulfill this need, we plan to characterize the liquefaction potential of local silty soils. This will be done first by compiling a dataset of over 200 cyclic direct simple shear (CDSS) tests from over 30 sites on regional silts in PACNW. These tests were originally performed by OSU researchers and local consultants. Dr. Steven Dickenson, the original investigator of these data, has agreed to share this archive with us. He has also agreed to collaborate with us on analyzing these data. The results will be disseminated through two factual reports to ODOT and WSDOT followed by a number of journal papers. The majority of these data are in PDF in project reports and need to be digitized. The student will help with digitizing, compiling and analyzing this dataset and will collaborate on publications as a co-author. Preliminary plans have been discussed for the student to continue working on this incredible dataset through her MS studies starting Fall 2019.