Upload
guest915770d
View
3.486
Download
3
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Development of engineering geology in western United States
George A. Kierscha,b,*
aProfessor Emeritus, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USAbKiersch Associates, GeoScience Consultants, 4750 Camino Luz, AZ 85718, USA
Abstract
Geologic concepts and scienti®c-technical guidance for the planning-design and construction of engineered works was
recognized in Europe by the 1800s and by the early 1900s in North America. This early geologic knowledge and experience
provided the rudimentary principles that guided practitioners of the 19th century in serving the emerging projects in western
United States. Case studies review the scienti®c-technical lessons learned and the legacy of geologic principles established in
the planning and construction of major civil, mining, and military engineered works in the western states. These contributions to
GeoScience knowledge and engineering geology practice include:
² Tunnels and aqueducts across active fault zones, beneath young volcanic features, groundwater-charged faults, and land
subsidence mitigation.
² Controversial foundation design, Folsom and Auburn dams, Golden Gate Bridge.
² Protective underground construction chambers, safety dependent geologic setting.
² Geologic mapping as database management leasing, maintenance railroad trackway.
² Causeway Great Salt Lake, geo-risks calculated, mitigated `as-constructed'.
² Nuclear powerplants seismic design.
² Urban Land-Use, on-going processes, acceptable geo-risks.
² Dwelling Insurance, insuree's responsibilities.
² Selecting technique/method to mitigate risk, preferably based on extensive database, evaluation of characteristics and
historical origin adverse features/conditions that constitute a geo-risk.
q 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Lessons learned Ð geoscience legacies; Principles of practice; Natural processes Ð acceptable geo-risks; Aqueducts/tunnels Ð
active faults; In¯ow groundwater; Dam foundations Ð concrete/earth®ll; Golden Gate Bridge; Nuclear plants; Land-use risks; Protective
underground construction; Railroad causeway; Calculated risks; Landslide destruction; Insuree's responsibilities; Drill-core Ð inadequate
interpretation; Impacts tunnel design; Mining method; Unit-bid prices; Safety
1. Introduction
1.1. Historical `engineered' works
The history of remarkable engineering construction
feats is as old as man's records that began with copper
mining on the Sinai Peninsula over 15,000 years ago
(Stone Age), and tunneling (adit) was started about
3500 BC.
Initially, `geologic' craft and lore was utilized to
evaluate natural sites and the remnants of remarkable
construction feats are a legacy to these early skills.
Use of `geologists` to evaluate natural risks and sites
for engineered works has a long history that
Engineering Geology 59 (2001) 1±49
0013-7952/01/$ - see front matter q 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII: S0013-7952(00)00063-6
www.elsevier.nl/locate/enggeo
* 400 Prospect St., Apt. 234, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
developed from the lore of our forefathers: Leonardo
da Vinci (Faul and Faul, 1983; Clements, 1981), Henri
Gautier (1721) and William Smith (Adams, 1938). In
North America early assistance, geological insight
and counsel for engineering purposes was fostered
by a small group of practitioners. However, any over-
view of these early efforts for projects in the western
states bene®ted from the substantial legacy of experi-
ence and knowledge acquired earlier by pioneers in
Europe and Asia.
The brief case-reviews of milestone engineering
projects and the rudimentary geologic principles and
concepts that follow are more fully described in the
recent Heritage volume (Kiersch, 1991). The emphasis
is on Ð `How and in what way have the efforts of
engineering geology practitioners resulted in scienti-
®c-technical advances in the GeoSciences, while
protecting the safety, health, and welfare of the public?'
1.2. Early concepts Ð engineers accept geologic
counsel
The concept that geologic conditions can in¯uence
the planning and construction of large-scale engi-
neered works, such as roads, canals, tunnels, and
water supplies, was recognized during the eighteenth
century in Europe and by the nineteenth century in
North America.
The application of geology for engineering
purposes played a small role in the early history and
expansion of the United States up to the 1880s, as
documented by Radbruch-Hall (1987). Accordingly,
America's westward expansion by the 1820s initiated
the construction of an improved network of roads and
canals. Yet suddenly in the middle of the century, road
and canal building was curtailed in favor of construct-
ing a nationwide railroad network (1850s±1870s).
This rush to western lands and the Paci®c region
required bold planning and unusual human efforts to
complete rail links with the central states.
Historically the early geologic concepts and
principles that assisted the builders of engineered
works in North America were largely due to the
accomplishments and scienti®c-technical advances
of European investigators in the eighteenth and nine-
teenth centuries. These European experiences and
proven principles were available to North American
geologists and engineers when called on to serve the
project demands of the mid- to the late-1800s. By the
1900s, the activities of applied geological practi-
tioners in North America were of a scope and
acceptance-level to their counterparts in Europe.
2. Early projects and practitioners
2.1. Introduction
Professor William O. Crosby of the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology offered the ®rst continuous
training with lectures and a syllabus text on geology
and engineering in 1893 (Kiersch, 1991, p. 23). The
®rst formal lectures on `Geology for Engineering
Students' were given in 1875±1876 by Theodore B.
Comstock at Cornell. Professor R.S. Tarr included the
subject in his Practical/Dynamic Geology course at
Cornell in 1894, and by 1898 with Heinrich Ries
they offered three geology courses for engineering
students. This led to the early `Engineering Geology'
text by Ries and Watson (1914, 1936).
Crosby became the leading practitioner and consul-
tant for engineered works (1893±1925) and is consid-
ered the `Father of Engineering Geology in North
America' (Kiersch, 1991, pp. 44±45). He was the
®rst to serve as a consulting geologist for: the US
Bureau Reclamation (Arrow Dam, Idaho); the US
Army Engineers (Muscle Shoals Dam, Tennessee);
the Board of Water Supply New York City; and for
some 50 other dams and tunnel projects in States, as
well as projects in Spain, Mexico, and Canada. In
California, Crosby served as a consultant for early
dams on the Feather River during 1920s, e.g. Big
Bend and Meadows Dams for Great Western Power
Co. (forerunner P.G.E.).
The innovative investigation of the Boston Harbor
environs by Professor W.O. Crosby a century ago
(1900±1903) warrants study by today's aspiring
practitioners (Cozort, 1981, pp. 203±212). The
proposed Charles River Dam, Boston was of deep
concern to the chief engineer, Freeman (1903).
Would damming the river estuary system allow the
preservation of the shoals and natural channels of
Boston Harbor, or conversely would the dam change
the harbor? Crosby's investigation of the Charles
River basin, other coastal estuaries, and offshore
islands concluded that surging of the tidal prism did
G.A. Kiersch / Engineering Geology 59 (2001) 1±492
more to shoal the harbor than deepen it. The dam
would not cause environmental changes and his
conclusions of 1903 have proved correct.
Gilbert (1884) was the ®rst modern geologist in
North America to relate the principles of mathe-
matics, physics, and engineering to the solution of
geological problems (Wallace, 1980); he seemed to
solve puzzles in the manner of an engineer. For
example, Gilbert (1909) was one of the ®rst to
investigate forecasting of earthquakes. His studies
of sediment transport in running water (Gilbert,
1914) and debris ¯ows as related to the mining
debris of the Sierra Nevada (1917) together estab-
lished engineering geology principles practiced
today. Even more fundamental was Gilbert's identi-
®cation of the subsidence and rebound phenomena
associated with loading and unloading of ancient
Lake Bonneville, a concept critical to the design-
operation of many engineered works (Yochelson,
1984). The physical properties of rock masses were
recognized in a very early paper concerning the need
for an accurate description and classi®cation of rock
units involved in engineering contracts (Hall, 1839)
and landslides (Mather and Whittlesey, 1838).
Professor Warren J. Mead, a pioneer in teaching the
applications of geology to engineering students at
Wisconsin and MIT, was known worldwide for his
research and geological expertise (Shrock, 1977, p.
692). His studies on rock properties and failure
mechanisms (Mead, 1925, 1930) established early
principles relative to stress and a rock mass which
constituted the forefront of thinking on `rock
mechanics' in the 1920s. As a consultant on Boulder
Dam, he demonstrated that minimal support only was
required throughout the four diversion tunnels
(Fig. 1), an early ®rst that lowered tunnel-construction
costs on many subsequent projects.
Kirk Bryan spent many years on ®eld-oriented
projects in the western states with the US Geological
Survey and was an early author on the `Geology of
reservoir and dam sites' (Bryan, 1929; AIME, 1929).
Later Bryan (1939), recognized that three distinct
G.A. Kiersch / Engineering Geology 59 (2001) 1±49 3
Fig. 1. Boulder (Hoover) Dam site under construction in the early 1930s. Note diversion tunnels in each abutment, and blasting for the keyway
of the dam in volcanic rocks (photo courtesy of the Heinrich Ries collection, Cornell University).
geologic uncertainties are critical to planning-
operating engineered works: (1) control of natural
agents, processes, and phenomena; (2) stability and
durability of rock masses; and (3) the control of
ground-water circulation, permeability and ¯ow of
¯uids. Similarly, Twenhofel (1932, 1939) was
another early contributor to the geological literature
for applied geologists with geological treatises on
sedimentation. These volumes described the proper-
ties of soft, unconsolidated, and soil-like deposits
common to engineering sites.
Other early consultants and engineering geology
practitioners in the Western States were prominent
contributors to the knowledge and growth of geology
for engineered works prior to 1940. This group
included: Professor John C. Branner who taught the
fundamentals of sur®cial geology to engineering
students at the Stanford University (Branner, 1898)
and consultant on St. Francis dam (1925). Later,
Professor Bailey Willis on numerous projects, e.g.
Golden Gate Bridge controversy. Professor Andrew
C. Lawson, UC-Berkeley served many engineering
related projects, such as the evaluation of San Francisco
earthquake damage in 1906; preparation of USGS folio
on City of San Francisco; construction UC-Memorial
stadium with inclusion of design for displacement of
foundation by the Hayward fault; and the stability
controversy serpentine rock surrounding Golden Gate
Bridge construction with A.E. Sedgwich, USC-Los
Angeles. Professor G.D. Louderback, UC-Berkeley,
was consultant on damsites for Federal and State agen-
cies as was Professor John P. Buwalda (Buwalda, 1951),
G.A. Kiersch / Engineering Geology 59 (2001) 1±494
Fig. 2. The San Andreas fault zone, strike-slip movement of 1906 in Marin County, California is cited by Reid (1911) in his concept of elastic
rebound (from Heinrich Ries collection, Cornell University, in Kiersch, 1991, p. 33).
California Institute of Technology. Chester Marliave, a
private consultant served such projects as Folsom dam
and Broadway tunnel, San Francisco, and Haiwee dam
for Los Angeles Water and Power.
2.2. Urban planning Ð mapping of cities
Circa 1900, the US Geological Survey formu-
lated an ambitious program to topographically and
geologically map a group of major cities. The map
folios were released with supporting information
on the surface and subsurface `environmental'
features and provided a terrain evaluation database
for the expected urban expansion and construction.
This series began with such cities as the Sacramento
folio by Lindgren (1894) and the San Francisco folio
by Lawson (1914).
2.3. EarthquakesÐresearch and forecasting
World attention was directed to a major branch of
engineering geology interest by the great earthquake
disaster in San Francisco, California, on 18 April
1906. Reports by the US Geological Survey (Gilbert
et al., 1907) and the Carnegie Institution (Lawson,
1908) on this cataclysm are classic in their scope
and thoroughness. All geologic phases were covered
in the reports including the effects of shock intensity
on various rock and soil foundations. This event
awakened the engineering profession to the potential
importance of a natural phenomena and the need for
constraints which have commanded the attention of
many engineering geologists, e.g. the shock intensity
on marshlands and saturated, man-made ®ll are far
greater than on rocky hills and natural, well-drained
soils (Engle, 1952) and such engineered structures are
so modi®ed in design. Reid (1911) developed the
concepts of elastic rebound and strike-slip move-
ment from observation along the San Andreas
fault zone, a milestone in understanding the causes
of seismic events (Fig. 2). The widely circulated
photograph of a barn and manure pile torn apart
by lateral movement (Kiersch, 1991, p. 31) illus-
trates the slip-displacement common to the San
Andreas fault zone.
The historic record of earthquakes in California
dates back to 1769, but only since the early 1930s
have earthquake studies become oriented to the safe
and economical design of engineering structures
(Richter, 1966). An early major earthquake affected
a wide area around the San Francisco Bay area in
1868, but little is known or on record. Right-lateral
movement occurred along the now-designated
Hayward fault that destroyed the village of Hayward
as reported by George Davidson (US Coast Survey).
Lawson in 1908 reported that authorities at the time
feared the release of data on the earthquake and the
severity of damage would hurt the reputation of the
San Francisco Bay area and suppressed the report. No
copies of a report on this Hayward-fault event are on
record. At UC-Berkeley campus the Hayward fault
crosses beneath the Memorial football stadium
which was built in two separate halves; the structure
can shift laterally without major damage should
movement occur on the fault. The regional geologic
processes active in the San Francisco Bay area have
been studied for decades; risks from geologic and
man-made conditions are summarized in Fig. 3A
and B and show a correlation between the 1906 and
1989 earthquake damage (Fig. 4) in the Marina
District of San Francisco.
Much progress in the ®eld of engineering seismol-
ogy is due to the efforts of scientists and engineers in
California; they founded the Seismology Society of
America in 1907 and committees of American Society
of Civil Engineers reported on earthquake effects
from 1907 to 1925. The major Santa Barbara earth-
quake occurred in California on 1 July 1925, soon
after the Congressional Act of January 1925, which
authorized the US Coast and Geodetic Survey to make
investigations and release seismological reports. This
milestone act was the beginning of our current meth-
ods of earthquake engineering studies in the United
States. Since another major earthquake in 1933 at
Long Beach, California, research in earthquake engi-
neering has advanced at an ever-accelerating pace.
The ®rst records of strong earthquake movements
obtained from the Long Beach earthquake (Neumann,
1952) led to the strengthening the building codes, e.g.
the Field act.
2.4. Railroads across western territory, 1850s±1870s
The discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill in California
in 1848 sparked a frenzied migration across the
nearly trackless western territories that was with-
out precedent in this country's history. So rapid
G.A. Kiersch / Engineering Geology 59 (2001) 1±49 5
was the settlement of the West Coast, with a hub
city on the San Francisco Bay, that railways were
proposed to cross the entire continent. The rail
lines would not only serve the population on the
coast, but also aid in the settlement of selective
broad regions between the Mississippi River and
Paci®c Ocean; a brief summary after Radbruch-
Hall (1987) follows.
G.A. Kiersch / Engineering Geology 59 (2001) 1±496
Fig. 3. (A) An early seismic zonation map of the San Francisco area, based on relative intensities felt throughout the city during the 1906
earthquake. (B) Note the correspondence between sur®cial materials and felt intensities (from Borcherdt, 1975).
2.5. Land grants
The federal government gave land grants in 1850 to
the states of Illinois, Mississippi and Alabama to
encourage construction of railroads; grants had gone
to 12 states by 1862 (DeFord, 1954, p. 4). The ®rst
western land grant was made to the Union Paci®c and
Central Paci®c Railroads on 1 July 1862, to build a
G.A. Kiersch / Engineering Geology 59 (2001) 1±49 7
Fig. 3. (continued)
G.A
.K
iersch/
En
gin
eering
Geo
logy
59
(2001)
1±
49
8
Fig. 4. Vertical velocities during a magnitude 4.6 aftershock of the Loma Prieta earthquake of 17 October, as recorded 21 October 1989, at the three temporary seismograph stations
in the Marina district of San Francisco. Note comparative ampli®cation of ground motion in damaged (LMS) and undamaged (PUC) areas, and areas of bedrock (MAS) (modi®ed
from Plafker and Galloway, 1989 in Kiersch, 1991, p. 374).
transcontinental line from the Missouri River to the
Paci®c Ocean via Nebraska and Wyoming (UP) and
connect with a line (CP) across California, Nevada,
and Utah (Fig. 5). A Congressional Act, 25 July 1866,
granted the Central Paci®c Railroad a right-of-way
and alternate odd sections of land for 20 miles on
each side of the railroad from Roseville, California
to the Oregon border; and a second act on 27 July
G.A. Kiersch / Engineering Geology 59 (2001) 1±49 9
Fig. 5. Grant lands and associated areas of California, Nevada, Utah, mapped by regional geologic survey of the Southern Paci®c Corporation,
1955±1961. Extent of the original Central (Southern) Paci®c land grants of 1862±1871 is inferred; parts disposed of prior to 1949 are based on
a 1909 survey (from Kiersch, 1991, p. 369).
G.A. Kiersch / Engineering Geology 59 (2001) 1±4910
1866, granted the Southern Paci®c Railroad a similar
strip from Needles, California, to San Jose, via
Coalinga. Another act of 1871 granted alternate
odd-section holdings to the Southern Paci®c Railroad
from the Tehachapi Pass near Mojave, California
southward to Yuma, Arizona (Fig. 5). Similar grants
were made to the other western railroads in 1864, 1866,
and 1871; Santa Fe Railroad across northern New
Mexico and Arizona, the Northern Paci®c Railroad
across Dakotas, Montana and Washington State. Only
lands with coal and iron were retained by the govern-
ment (Henry, 1945). The land grants and rail lines
across the barren `wastelands' of that day enhanced
their value and the tax revenue from railroad real estate
became a major source of local income.
By 1867, developing industries in America were
making radical demands on the nation's natural
resources. Congress reacted and funded western geolo-
gical explorations. The Fortieth Parallel survey, was
authorized in 1867, to explore routes for the transcon-
tinental railroad (UP/CP) under direction of Clarence
King and the US Army Engineers. An earlier survey
(US War Department 1856) explored several routes for
a railroad from Mississippi River to Paci®c Ocean in
1853±1854. After three successful years the King
survey was placed under the Secretary of the Interior
in 1870 (King, 1880). Three other surveys followed,
led by F.V. Hayden, Lt. George Wheeler, and Major
John Wesley Powell's exploration of the unknown
Colorado River Canyonlands. All four surveys were
under the control of Congress by 1874, which led to
establishing the US Geological Survey in 1879.
2.6. Geological survey Ð Southern Paci®c lands
1909±1920s
The western railroad land grants of 1862±1871
initiated little controversy over mineral rights and
land values until 1900s when industrial development
brought railroad land holdings into the spotlight. As
an outgrowth, a far-sighted geological and mineral
evaluation of the Southern Paci®c grant lands was
undertaken in 1909 under D.T. Dumble, formerly
a professor of geology at the University of Texas
and Director Third Texas Geological Survey
(1888±1894).
The principal objective of the survey was to select
all lands for patent that were considered nonmineral
and negotiate the release of known mineral-bearing
lands. Although the survey was active between 1909
and 1925, SPCo had organized an active geological
group in 1897 under consultant E.T. Dumble to
oversee operation of Rio Bravo Oil Company and
other coal and oil interests. The geological staff
were responsible for many pioneering ®rsts in the
application of geology for industrial exploration that
included: techniques for geological logging of core-
hole cuttings; correlation of subsurface data between
wells within a ®eld; use of micro-paleontology as an
exploration tool, and other techniques in the 1910s
(Underwood, 1964). Many well-known California
geologists served on this early survey: J.T. Taff,
S.H. Jester, F.S. Hudson, D. Clark, L. Melhase,
W.L. Moody, and C.L. Cunningham.
The survey identi®ed the Coalinga region of
California by 1920 as lands with an excellent potential
for petroleum. These SPCo lands were subsequently
acquired by a rising new company, Standard Oil of
California (Chevron today), and the Coalinga area
became its principal producing ®eld for over two
decades. Several geologists associated with SPCo's
survey became the nucleus of Standard's exploration
staff; and S.H. Jester became chief geologist, serving
into the 1940s.
2.7. Aqueducts for Los Angeles area
During the 1900s, a major water-supply system was
undertaken for the greater Los Angeles area. The ®rst
Owens River aqueduct was constructed in 1907±1913
by the Department of Water and Power, Los Angeles
(LADWP). These works accomplished many `®rsts'
in engineering geology practice with respect to
tunneling and excavation through active fault zones,
as did the later construction of the Mono Basin exten-
sion between 1934 and 1940 (Fig. 6). Los Angeles
G.A. Kiersch / Engineering Geology 59 (2001) 1±49 11
Fig. 6. Map of the Los Angeles Aqueduct system, Los Angeles to Owens River sector completed in 1913. Mono Basin extensions northward
completed in 1941 with intake at Lee Vining. The Second Aqueduct project completed in 1969 parallels the original aqueduct system, begins
with an intake south of Owens Dry Lake/Olancha. This water-supply network of tunnels, canals, dams, and powerhouses crosses many active
fault zones in the eastern Sierra Nevada and Los Angeles region (from Kiersch, 1991, p. 27).
purchased 307,000 acres in Inyo and Mono Counties
to protect the water rights that supplied the aqueduct.
The drama, intrigue, and legal maneuvers by the land-
owners to retain the water and by the builders
(LADWP) to gain the water rights and the right-of-
way for construction were depicted in the movie
Chinatown in the 1970s. The Second Los Angeles
aqueduct, constructed in 1965±1970, increased
water delivered to city by 50% (Fig. 6).
The ®rst aqueduct of 375 km tapped the fresh
waters of the Owens River that ¯owed into saline
Owens Lake; the later Mono Basin extension (1940)
extended the system 170 km northward for a total of
545 km (Fig. 6). This system of engineered works
consists of more than 100 tunnels (120 km), many
dams and powerhouses, and more than 400 km of
con®ned, or open canal ¯ow. The tunnels and canals
have required continued maintenance owing to the
numerous fault zones crossed and the varied/contrast-
ing rock conditions.
The Elizabeth tunnel, part of the original 1913
aqueduct, carries water from the Fairmount Reservoir
across a ridge and the San Andreas fault zone and
discharges into a canyon for hydroelectric plants
downstream. The horseshoe-shaped pressure tunnel,
8 km long, is mainly in granitic rock that varies
from a hard to an altered and thoroughly crushed
rock mass. The active San Andreas fault zone (about
1.5 km wide) is crossed orthogonally by the tunnel,
another early `®rst' in applied geology. This sub-
surface exposure of the active fault zone has been
widely used for scienti®c research; no signi®cant
movement or damage to the tunnel has been reported
to date (Wilson and Mayeda, 1966; Proctor, 1999).
The Mono Craters tunnel of 1934±1940 experi-
enced a series of different geological problems, as
described by Wilson and Mayeda (1966). The tunnel,
18 km long (3 m diameter), pierces the volcanic necks
that underlie the Mono Craters and some 20 inactive
volcanic pumice cinder cones between Mono Basin
and Long Valley. Excavation required ®ve and a half
years from six headings; 67% of the tunnel is
supported due to the wide variety of rocks penetrated,
i.e. mainly rhyolite, tuff, volcanic ash, granite, meta-
morphics, sandstone, glacial deposits, lake beds, and
alluvium. Nearly every serious dif®culty inherent to
tunneling occurred: exceptional volumes of water
under high pressure with ¯ows to 35,000 gpm; a
high ¯ow of carbon dioxide gas in an area of calcar-
eous rocks (nearby volcanic activity); and squeezing
and ¯owing ground at the fault contacts between
metamorphic and granitic rocks where the deeply
weathered material air-slaked on exposure.
2.8. Western dams
The Reclamation Act of 1902 authorized the
federal government to start a reclamation and irriga-
tion program in the western United States under the
Reclamation Service, an agency separated from the
US Geological Survey Hydrologic Branch in 1907,
and designated the Bureau of Reclamation in 1923.
One of the earliest irrigation projects to be authorized
was the development of the Salt River in Arizona, of
which Roosevelt Dam (1906±1911) was the ®rst
project. The principal investigation of the site was
by drilling several holes in the channel section; the
good-quality foundation of sandstone and quartzite
required very little excavation. Roosevelt Dam and
most of the other early dam projects had little
occasion to call on geologic counsel Ð the good-
quality, natural sites available accommodated the
moderate-height dams. Interestingly, Roosevelt Dam
was an early `Old Dam' to undergo rehabilitation and
modi®cation in 1988 (Fig. 22).
The Arrow Dam in Idaho was another early Bureau
of Reclamation project that was followed by many
large-scale dam projects of 1920s±1980s. The most
widely known Boulder/Hoover Dam on Colorado
River near Las Vegas, Nevada was a professional
milestone in the acceptance of geologic guidance for
planning and construction of major engineered works.
2.9. Boulder/Hoover dam
On 12 March 1928, the dramatic and complete
failure, within a few minutes, of the St. Francis
dam near Saugus, California, was a convincing
disaster in the history of large engineering struc-
tures. One repercussion was a symposium (AIME,
1929) to consider problems of dam and reservoir
geology, that directed attention to the importance
of adequate geological investigations and counsel
in erecting dams. The results, which were widely
publicized, focused attention on the importance of
geology as an indispensable aid in civil engineer-
ing (Kiersch, 1955, p. 23).
G.A. Kiersch / Engineering Geology 59 (2001) 1±4912
Reverberations of the St. Francis disaster intensi-
®ed the differences of opinion and uncertainties
concerning construction of a proposed high dam at
Boulder Canyon on the Colorado River. Finally, to
appease all parties concerned, Congress, on 29 May
1928, authorized the Secretary of the Interior to
appoint a board of ®ve eminent engineers and geolo-
gists to examine the proposed site of the dam and
advise as to matters affecting the safety, economic
and engineering feasibility, and adequacy of the
proposed structure (USBR, 1950, p. 11). The two
geologists on this board were Charles P. Berkey and
Warren J. Mead. The board's recommendations are
now history, yet, ironically, it required an engineering
failure and catastrophe (St. Francis dam) to gain due
recognition of the importance geologic conditions
may attain in large-scale construction projects.
Oddly, these events led to the ®nal authorization and
construction of the world's highest dam (726 ft) at
that date. The major recommendations of the board
members in 1928 proved engineering wise and
economically sound, and many `®rsts' in engineering
geology were recorded at Boulder dam, among them
was F.A. Nickell the ®rst resident geologist, on a
Bureau project. The St. Francis dam catastrophe
and public's concern resulted in State of California
establishing an of®ce, Supervisor of Safety of Dams
in 1929.
The USBR constructed the Grand Coulee dam on
Columbia River, Washington (1933±1942) in a glacial
scoured, complex geologic environs of extensively
jointed/fractured fresh granitic rock and associated
glacial deposits (Irwin, 1938). They also undertook
construction of Parker dam downstream from Boulder
dam on Colorado River. This project became the
deepest concrete dam below the riverbed (233 ft. to
bedrock) and only 87 ft. above; the concrete experi-
enced an early case of cement-aggregate reaction and
sur®cial cracking.
Subsequently, the USBR undertook construction of
Shasta Dam on the upper Sacramento River in
northern California (1938±1943) a key unit of
Bureau's California Central Valley plan. The dam
foundation of intruded metamorphic rocks is traversed
by a variety of faults and shear zones with associated
joints and altered materials. During this period the
Friant Dam on San Joaquin River east of Fresno was
undertaken. It is the southern link in the Bureau's
Central Valley plan along with the Delta±Mendota
Canal that moves San Joaquin River water southward
from a pumping station near Tracy for irrigation usage
in the Mendota-region.
The US Army Corps of Engineers was authorized
to build ¯ood control dams and related works in many
western states by the Flood Control Act of 1936.
Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River, Oregon-
Washington was a major early project followed by
other dams upstream. A series of ¯ood control dams
were built in Central California on rivers ¯owing into
the Central Valley beginning in 1940s with: Pine Flat
dam on the Kings River; Isabella Dam on Kern River;
Success Dam on Tule River at Porterville; and the
Folsom project east of Sacramento on the American
River. Folsom was the ®rst joint-undertaking by the
Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation for
¯ood control and power generation facilities under
the `Folsom Formula' legislation in 1949 (exploration
and construction geology described below).
2.10. Attitudes change among engineers re: geology
By the 1930s, the civil engineering profession
realized the need for greater geological input and
guidance for major works. Unfortunately, geological
science did not respond immediately to the requests of
the civil engineers for an improved knowledge of the
physical properties of rocks and/or soft, unconsolidated
sediments and soils. Consequently, civil engineers
themselves began to provide input. A leader among
the group of concerned engineers was Karl Terzaghi,
an early specialist in earth materials. He worked for
the US Reclamation Service from 1912 to 1915, but
returned to Europe to advance the combined ®elds of
soil mechanics and geology for engineered works as
professor at Roberts College, Constantinople and the
Technical Hochschule, Vienna. He returned to America
as Professor of Foundation Engineering at Harvard
(1938±1963) and served as a prominent consultant for
engineered works in North America. Terzaghi based his
soil mechanics techniques on sound geological
knowledge (Terzaghi, 1955) and believed every soil-
mechanics specialists (`geotechnical' today) should be
half geologist; a combination he acknowledged later had
not been followed by his successors, and was a major
professional disappointment (Terzaghi, 1963). Reviews
G.A. Kiersch / Engineering Geology 59 (2001) 1±49 13
of Terzaghi's accomplishments are given by Goodman
(1999) and Shlemon (1999).
During the early 1900s, Homer Hamlin ®rst
engaged in geology and then in engineering for
several large California municipalities, and became
one of the early engineer-geologists. Ultimately, his
studies for municipalities on control of the Colorado
River culminated in a 1920 proposal to put a dam in
Boulder Canyon Ð a site later used for Hoover Dam
(Nickell, 1942). Another early geologist involved
with the investigation of dam sites along the Colorado
River in the 1920s was Sidney Paige, who became an
eminent practitioner of engineering geology from the
1930s to 1950s (Paige, 1950).
2.11. Highway construction materials Ð early
investigations
The use of geologists to locate sources of adequate
materials and provide guidance in planning routes for
the developing nationwide highway system became a
major category of applied geology in the early 1900s.
By the year 1918, some 50 papers on geology as
applied to highway engineering had been published
in America (Huntting, 1945). This included the road-
material sources of 24 states and reports on the
relation of mineral composition to the engineering
characteristics of the rock. An early report by Pearson
and Loughlin (1923) of a concrete failure traced the
cause to a cement-aggregate reaction from a source in
San Gabriel Mountains, California. Reactive-aggre-
gate became a serious problem in highway pavements
and caused cracking on concrete surfaces at Parker
Dam on Colorado River. Soon thereafter methods
were devised to counteract the causes (McConnel et
al., 1950).
2.12. Hetch Hetchy aqueduct, 1927±1934
Another early water supply project, the Hetch
Hetchy aqueduct serving San Francisco, in¯uenced
engineering geology practice. The alignment required
a Coast Range tunnel 46 km long, the ®rst long-bore
tunnel driven in the Paci®c Coastal region. Very dif®-
cult rock conditions were encountered in tunneling
from near Wesley in Central Valley to the outskirts
of Livermore that included: active rock stresses in
which parts required realignment due to the highly
contorted and sheared sediments; the clayey matrix
of some sandstones induced swelling and squeezing;
and dif®culty dealing with substantial quantities of
methane and sulfuretted hydrogen gas (McAfee,
1934). These problems served to develop the use of
gunite as a sublining to control-support in squeezing
ground. Some faults traversed by the tunnel are now
known to be active.
2.13. Broadway tunnel, Berkeley Hills, 1935±1937
Another early northern California tunnel that also
in¯uenced engineering geology practice was the twin-
bore highway tunnel through the Berkeley Hills that
links the Orinda and Walnut Creek areas to the East
Bay and San Francisco Bay bridge. Benjamin M.
Page, of Stanford, served as geologist for the contrac-
tor and described the tunneling dif®culties largely due
to the unexpected geological conditions encountered
(Page, 1950). The Miocene±Pliocene rocks involved
consist of sandstone, shaley sandstone, shale,
mudstone and conglomerate. Part of the tunnel
cross-cut an overturned limb of a syncline and the
folded beds with dips up to 608 were fractured and
displaced by the many associated faults.
Although a pre-construction geologic investigation
and report was made by a prominent Berkeley
geologist, it re¯ected no serious concerns. In reality,
the `as-encountered' tunneling conditions presented
serious dif®culties and work stoppages owing to:
lateral pressures active at the southwest portal;
instability and `running ground' with `cave-ins';
unstable contacts between some bedded rock units;
and treacherously weak and altered plastic diabase
dikes. The construction contract by The Six Companies
(builders Boulder Dam), was canceled by the California
Highway District due to slow progress in 1936, and
the tunnel was completed in 1937 by a replacement
contractor. This action led to a major lawsuit in which
`Six Companies' contended that the inaccurate pre-
construction geologic report was a major cause of
their slow progress (unexpected adverse rock condi-
tions). The California Highway District contended
they assumed no responsibility for the accuracy or
views of the geologist. The Court accepted this
proviso (no accountability) and `Six Companies'
was denied any consideration for the misleading
pre-bid report and thus lost the suit.
This pioneer tunnel in the East Bay Hills provided
G.A. Kiersch / Engineering Geology 59 (2001) 1±4914
extensive geologic information and a database of
great assistance in planning-design of the Bay Area
Rapid Transit (BART) system tunnel built nearby in
1960s.
2.14. San Jacinto tunnel of Colorado River aqueduct,
1934±1936
The San Jacinto tunnel driven through the San
Jacinto Mountains experienced serious setbacks in
the early stages of construction due to geologic condi-
tions largely unknown to the contractor (Henderson,
1939). This experience emphasized the seriousness
and challenges associated with driving a large-size
tunnel through a highly faulted mountain range with
known active faults and minimal `as-is' geologic
information. Some fault zones caused costly delays
and experienced enormous water in¯ows, from 7500
to 16,000 gpm at one location. The San Jacinto
experience con®rmed the necessity for a suitable
pre-construction geological investigation to establish
the least hazardous tunnel alignment and a construc-
tion plan. For example, approaching the fault zone
from the hanging-wall side can control the ground-
water in¯ow from a fault zone into an advancing
tunnel heading. This allows a more gradual in¯ow
of water at the tunnel face to drain from the inter-
connected fractures of the zone, before the tunneling
advances and passes through the fault zone. The
original San Jacinto alignment was changed after
detailed geologic mapping located and evaluated 21
fault zones; the new alignment intersected only 11
zones. Other measures used to reduce risks and
tunneling costs included: drilling `feeler' holes
ahead of face; placing small pioneer bores ahead of
main face in dangerous `grounds'; grouting off water
ahead of face; and using gunite techniques on fresh
exposures (Thompson, 1966, pp. 105±107).
Another critical groundwater principle was learned;
a low annual precipitation in an arid region is not
necessarily indicative of a dry tunnel in a highly
faulted terrain. The water drained from the numerous
faults cross-cut by the tunnel depleted the ground
water supply to surface springs and wells. An assess-
ment of the damage to local ground-water supplies
was further complicated because no systematic data-
base on the ¯ow of springs and wells was made before
construction. This resulted in costly litigation for
more than a generation (Henderson, 1951, oral
communication; Proctor, 1999).
2.15. Golden Gate Bridge controversy, 1931±1934
Engineers were aware of the need for geological
input into the planning and design of major works
by the 1930s. Yet, this guidance could interject
confusion and adverse effects into the planning
and construction, if the geological conditions were
misinterpreted. Often meddlesome or adversarial
approaches to planning a project are advanced by an
intervenor/group, who have invested minimal tech-
nical effort to support their concepts and accusations.
Such intervention can require the project's owner to
perform additional exploration, prepare arguments
and special reports to counter the criticism; frequently
public hearings are held to resolve the issues Ð a
costly and time-consuming effort for the project
sponsor. Use of scienti®c and engineering concepts
by intervenors became popular in the 1950s±1980s
during the construction and/or licensing of nuclear
power plants in North America.
A much earlier case of intervenor opposition
occurred in the exploration for and design of the foun-
dation for the South Pier of the Golden Gate Bridge,
San Francisco, during 1931±1934 (Lutgens et al.,
1934; Strauss, 1938; Schlocker, 1974). Opposition
to the Golden Gate Bridge was supported by some
San Francisco area corporate interests and citizen
groups alike with public challenges in the 1920s and
early 1930s which delayed the construction.
One accusation contended that foundation condi-
tions for the South Pier were unsafe and a redesign
was required. The pier was located within a body
of serpentine rock at a depth of 100 ft below the
channel surface (Fig. 7). The consulting geologists
Andrew C. Lawson (UC-Berkeley) and Allan E.
Sedgwich (USC-Los Angeles), after further review
in 1932, concluded that the foundation, as designed,
was safe and beyond question (Lutgens et al., 1934).
Although this argument was temporarily dropped,
the opposition took a different tack. They chal-
lenged the legality of the Bridge District to ®nance
construction based on plans for marketing bonds at
a 5.25% rate of interest, when district approval was
only at a 5% rate. This maneuver was defeated
when A.P. Giannini, Chairman of the Bank of
G.A. Kiersch / Engineering Geology 59 (2001) 1±49 15
G.A
.K
iersch/
En
gin
eering
Geo
logy
59
(2001)
1±
49
16
Fig. 7. The south pier of Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, was the focus of a geological controversy in 1930s to redesign its foundation. A contention that faults occurred in a
poor-quality serpentine foundation rock led geologist Bailey Willis to challenge ®ndings of the consulting geologists A.C. Lawsen and A.E. Sedgwich. The differences of
interpretation are shown on subsurface sections of the south pier (from Kiersch, 1991, p. 35).
G.A
.K
iersch/
En
gin
eering
Geo
logy
59
(2001)
1±
49
17
Fig. 8. Geologic map of south pier area and subsurface section showing location of `faults' believed by Bailey Willis to occur and endanger the integrity of south pier foundation
(from Kiersch, 1991, p. 36).
America (originally Bank of Italy) pledged his
bank's support Ð and quickly sold $3 million
worth of district bonds at 5%. New bids were
tendered on 14 October 1932, and construction
began on 5 January 1933.
As construction progressed into 1934, safety of
the South Pier became the opposition's sole
argument for delaying the bridge. Bailey Willis,
professor emeritus at Stanford University, began a
concerted drive to discredit the consulting geolo-
gist's interpretation of geologic conditions surround-
ing the pier's foundation (Fig. 8). Willis submitted
his ®rst report on 7 April 1934, to the Bridge District
and later sent a report to Chief Engineer J.B. Strauss
on 22 August 1934. He recommended that construc-
tion be stopped until his geologic contentions were
clari®ed. Additionally, on 19 October 1934, Willis
(1934) published a two-page discussion and his
technical points with diagrams and a model of the
site. He contended the serpentine foundation rock
was an inadequate and treacherous material that
would swell and decompose and large-scale fault
movement would occur along the faults (as no. 3,
Fig. 8). Again Willis requested the district to stop
construction and redesign the South Pier of the
bridge; his solution was a foundation on the `sand-
stone mass' at a depth of some 250 ft beneath the
`as-constructed' level (shown Figs. 7 and 8). This
proposal would greatly increase construction costs.
After an extensive hearing in which each argu-
ment by Willis `was carefully scrutinized and
found erroneous as to fact or inference,' the Building
Committee concluded: a `sandstone mass' did not
occur at depth nor did a fault plane beneath the
pier site (Fig. 8), and furthermore, the serpentinized
rock mass was a competent body, when con®ned, to
carry the static load imposed by the bridge. The
Building Committee recommended the directors
disregard the arguments and recommendations of
Professor Willis on 27 November 1934 (Lutgens et
al., 1934, p. 16). The long, sometimes bitter, and
costly battle over geological arguments/concerns
that the Golden Gate Bridge design was unsafe was
closed. The bridge was open to vehicular traf®c on
27 May 1937; the construction costs and bond were
fully repaid on 1 July 1971 and over time no stability
problems have been experienced in spite of several
strong earthquakes.
3. Growth of engineering geology-practice
3.1. Overview
The advent of World War II (1939±1945) brought
about the proliferation of applied geology on a scale
hitherto unimagined. Among the many new phases,
the applications of geology to military operations as
developed in Europe and South Paci®c were among
the most important advancements in engineering
geology of the mid-century (Kiersch, 1955, 1998).
Additionally, applications of marine geology and
sedimentation principles were developed for naval
operations, such as, the use of underwater sound,
marine mining, installation of underwater equipment,
shore installations, and amphibious operations
(Russell, 1950). Aerial-detection and geophysical
techniques developed for naval and army warfare
have been modi®ed and successfully adapted for a
wide range of geological-geophysical exploration
purposes (Bates et al, 1982; Kiersch, 1998). Trask
(1950) reviewed the importance of soft rock and sedi-
ments in the major areas of geological practice, for
civil and military works.
The post-World War II period witnessed the growth
of applied geosciences and a substantial improvement
in the professional status of engineering geology
practice. The greatly increased demand for geologists
to plan and participate in the construction of the major
engineering works approached the number of applied
geologists participating in the discovery and exploita-
tion of mineral resources in western states. This was a
dramatic change in practice for the Geoscience
community (Betz, 1984, p. 241). These changing
demands required a modi®cation of emphasis for
professional practice of engineering geologists. The
new concerns were more focused on the scienti®c
aspects that included: the natural physical processes;
dating of tectonic and associated events; reaction of
the environs to operating works and man-induced
actions; and the geologist's responsibilities to protect
the health, safety, and welfare of the public (Kiersch,
1955, 1991).
After World War II state agencies became more
active in addressing a wide range of engineering
geology problems, particularly in connection with
highways, water supply, urban zoning, ¯ood plains
and conservation measures. Typical of the trend was
G.A. Kiersch / Engineering Geology 59 (2001) 1±4918
the planning and development of statewide water
projects by the California Division of Water
Resources under the chief geologist E.C. Marliave
in the 1950s and L.B. James in the 1960s and 1970s
when more than 100 geologists were engaged with the
many phases of the California State Water Project.
Oroville dam and power facility on the Feather
River, a key installation of State Water Project,
supplies the California Aqueduct that moves water
southward to the Los Angeles area and the Mojave
high-desert east-branch to the San Bernadino region.
The aqueduct alignment crosses an extensive region
underlain by hydrocompactable soils/sediments in the
San Joaquin Valley. Areal land subsidence became a
serious geologic problem/risk due to both (a) heavy
groundwater withdrawal at depth; and (b) collapse of
the low-density near-surface deposits when saturated.
This high-risk, probability was eliminated by using
ponds along the alignment to presubside and stablize
the canal foundation (James, 1991; Borchers, 1998).
The land subsidence phenomena are also common in
parts of Arizona, Nevada, and Utah.
Concurrently, the California Division of Mines and
Geology under Ian Campbell (1958±1969) initiated
geologic mapping that de®ned the surface features
and the potential geo-risk of active processes during
a period that witnessed a burgeoning of concerns for
the environmental and engineering applications of the
geosciences (Oakschott, 1985, p. 332). This attention
to practical geologic concerns has continued since the
1970s under the current chief of CDMG, James F.
Davis.
Employment of engineering geologists by the
1960s was mainly in one of the two categories: on a
large-scale focus related to regional/areal features and
how they might impact the planning-construction of
engineered works; or on a detailed scale, con®ned to
small areas and site-speci®c geology that included the
construction of works.
Underground rapid transit systems were being
installed or planned in a number of cities throughout
the States by 1960; most projects required large-scale
geological investigations for the planning-design with
an on-going input during construction. The Bay Area
Rapid Transit (BART) was built in 1966±1973
(Taylor and Conwell, 1981). The BART tube to the
East Bay region beneath the San Francisco Bay
became the only direct connection between the area
cities after the Loma Prieta earthquake of 17 October
1989, damaged and closed the Bay Bridge (Fig. 9).
Subsequently, Caltrans embarked on a statewide
seismic retro®t program and by 1997 concluded that
the East Span of Bay Bridge, Yerba Buena Island to
Oakland mole, should be replaced. Geologic investi-
gations were undertaken in 1998 and planning has
progressed for the replacement structure SFOBB
East Span project (McNeilan et al., 1998).
Since the World War II, airport programs have
created demands for larger sites with greater bearing
capacities that created enormously expanded
construction-material needs. Creating similar
demands have been the expansion of state and federal
conservation measures, urban developments, reclaim-
ing marginal lands, and military planning involving
air, land, and underwater applications of geology. In
G.A. Kiersch / Engineering Geology 59 (2001) 1±49 19
Fig. 9. San Francisco Bay Bridge, Oakland East Bay span showing
the failed section caused by the Loma Prieta earthquake of 17 Octo-
ber 1989 (photo courtesy US Geological Survey/H. Wilshire, in
Kiersch, 1991, p. 59).
G.A. Kiersch / Engineering Geology 59 (2001) 1±4920
the 1960s, demands required the active participation
of applied geologists in lunar and planetary explora-
tion (Green, 1962).
The deterioration of highways during World War II
emphasized the realization they are defense lines which
caused highway construction to dramatically expand
with improved design standards. Freeways and inter-
state highways became the trend, and by design
required a greater use of geologic guidance for planning
and construction. In 1955, the US Congress supported a
far-sighted nationwide interstate highway system for
construction over a 10-year period. This activity
engaged a large group of applied highway geologists
throughout the western states in state and local agencies
and private consulting and engineering ®rms.
Eight major dams failed around the world between
1959 and 1964. Two reservoir±dam failures in 1963,
Vaiont, Italy (Kiersch, 1964, 1988), and Baldwin
Hills, California, (James, 1968), coming after the
earlier failure at Malpasset, France in 1958, initiated
a period of reconsideration and evaluation of dam
safety. This led to mandatory inspections of dams
and reservoirs by the 1970s and frequently such
modi®cations as improving the stability of reservoir
slopes (James and Kiersch, 1988). The need for
increased electrical generating capacity could not be
met by more hydro-projects and contributed to the
large-scale planning and construction of nuclear
power plants.
By the late 1960s, concern was building for
protection of the natural environment and the impact
of proposed or operating engineered works. The 1969
leakage of an operating oil well in Santa Barbara
Channel, California focused nationwide attention on
the spill and led to enactment of many federal laws
and regulations such as the National Environment
Policy Acts (NEPA) of 1969, the US Environmental
Protection Agency (USEPA) of 1970, and the Water
Quality Improvement Act of 1970. Many other
national, state, and local regulations followed in the
1970s and 1980s and overall become the major
guidelines for the practice of applied geosciences
relevant to the environment. Speci®c projects
expected to have a serious environmental impact
were disposal and deep burial of nuclear waste,
disposal of garbage and refuse in land®lls, the health
concerns of trace elements and contaminating in
ground-water supplies, and the safety of ¯ood plains
and ¯ood-hazard zoning of these lands. Two new
areas of specialized practice emerged: the identi®ca-
tion and mitigation of `geologic risks' (Fig. 10)
spurred by safety concerns and notable failures of
large-scale engineered works; and the disposal of
waste and deep burial projects that focused on ground
water as a contaminant carrier.
4. Some representative major projects Ð since1948
4.1. Underground protective construction
Realization of the destructive force of the atomic
bomb in 1945, and later the hydrogen bomb, created
concern that defense against their effects was nearly
impossible. In response, the US Corps of Engineers
and government-sponsored research groups made
tremendous strides in the design of protective
construction to resist large-scale blasts. This approach
relied on knowledge of the geologic environs and
properties of rock masses. Developments in destruc-
tive weapons dictated some underground locations for
military command centers and storage facilities; two
strategic installations were built by the 1960s, the
Omaha, Nebraska, Command Control Center and
the NORAD Center in Cheyenne Mountain near
Colorado Springs, Colorado. Geologic principles
relevant to the location, construction, and operation
of subterranean installations to resist modest-scale
subsurface explosions were reviewed by Kiersch
(1949, 1951) and O'Sullivan, (1961).
The underground Explosion Test Program of US
Corps of Engineers with engineers, geologists, and
technical staff of Sacramento District performed
®eld studies at sites in Utah and Colorado. Under-
ground chambers were constructed at various depths
in sandstone and granite followed by live-detonations
to test scale models (1947±1950). Further research by
G.A. Kiersch / Engineering Geology 59 (2001) 1±49 21
Fig. 10. The common natural geologic-hydrologic phenomena/geo-risks; man-induced phenomena/geo-risks; and natural atmospheric-hydro-
logic phenomena/hazards (from Kiersch, 1991, p. 55).
Engineering Research Associates (ERA), Minneapolis
(1952±1953) emphasized the principal geologic factors
that impact on the design of a large-scale underground
protective chamber (ERA, 1952a,b). The Rand
Corporation sponsored an underground construction
symposium (1959) that recorded the `state of knowl-
edge' on the design and construction of underground
protective chambers (USCE, 1961).
4.2. Broadway tunnel, San Francisco, 1945±1952
The Broadway tunnel project under the historic
Russian Hill area was approved in 1946 and
Morrison±Knudsen Company began construction in
May 1950. The tunnel consists of two bores, 28.5 ft
wide and 35 ft apart, to provide a traf®c artery from
downtown San Francisco to the northwestern part of
the city and the Golden Gate Bridge (Fig. 11).
The city of San Francisco had previously engaged a
consulting engineer/geologist in 1944 (Hyde Forbes)
to supervise the drilling of cored-borings to tunnel-grade
and interpret/evaluate the site area and geological
exploration data for planning-design and bid-contract
purposes. Subsurface investigations were critical to
evaluating the expected rock and soil-overburden condi-
tions along the urbanized, built-over tunnel alignment
(Cooney, 1952). The consultant's feasibility study
reported the occurrence of many small faults, some
breccia and shear zones, and considerable deformation
of the Franciscan rock mass. Unfortunately, the full
geological implications and meaning of the boring
data, both physical and `fugitive,' were not realized
and the in-place rock conditions were incorrectly
interpreted (Forbes, 1945). Evaluation of the low-core
recovery (under 50%) was erroneously attributed to
some natural fracturing but mainly excessive mechan-
ical grinding, blocking, and overruns by the driller.
Insuf®cient attention was paid to the highly fractured
conditions of the recovered core as an indication of
rock-in-place. Forbes' (1945; 1951) description of the
expected rock conditions in¯uenced the contractor to
bid his costs on a full-face mining method.
Tunneling quickly revealed a more extensively
fractured and less-healed rock mass than expected,
and deterioration of rock by weathering was serious
and widespread. Surprisingly, the consultant had not
studied the surface outcrops near the tunnel alignment
as an aid in evaluating the characteristics of the
G.A. Kiersch / Engineering Geology 59 (2001) 1±4922
Fig. 11. Broadway Tunnel alignment through Russian Hill provides a low-level traf®c artery from downtown San Francisco to Golden Gate
Bridge. Note Ð location coincides with topographic saddle between Nob and Russia Hill (from Wadsworth, 1953).
sandstone and shale units at tunnel-level (Marliave,
1951), a serious error of geological judgment. The
alignment largely coincides with the topographic
saddle between Nob and Russian Hills (Fig. 11),
which commonly indicates faulting in Franciscan
bedrock. Moreover, the east portal area of Russian
Hill was inadequately investigated; instead of
bedrock, the area was an old, back-®lled stream
channel with no bedrock. This condition required
use of costly Type-A steel supports.
As the tunnel progressed, geologic conditions
continued to be very different than expected by the
contractor from the bid documents, and Chester
Marliave was engaged by contractor to make a geolo-
gical investigation. By mid-1951 the city of San
Francisco was also concerned and sponsored two
separate studies; one by consultant John P. Buwalda
of Caltech (1951), and the other by consultant Karl
Terzaghi of Boston. In addition, the as-encountered
geologic conditions throughout the tunnel were
mapped by US Geological Survey personnel (M.G.
Bonilla and co-workers). All three consultants and
the USGS investigators concluded that the geologic
setting of the tunnel site had not been fully evaluated
G.A. Kiersch / Engineering Geology 59 (2001) 1±49 23
Fig. 12. Broadway Tunnel, San Francisco. Geologic cross section of station 18 1 08 of the southbound lane. The typical conditions encountered
in the Franciscan rock complex are represented, along with a plot of faulted and sheared rock units and mining methods (after ®eld notes M.G.
Bonilla, 1952; US Geological Survey Library, in Kiersch, 1991, p. 53).
nor adequately correlated with the cored-boring data
for either the design or bidding purposes.
4.2.1. Changed conditions
The Broadway tunnel project became the center of
a long public controversy between the contractor and
the city during 1951 and the `as-is' rock conditions.
The contractor contended the original consulting
report of 1945 was misleading, and substantially
changed conditions were encountered because the
bid documents stated or implied there were: (1) no
bedding planes in sandstone unit, no faults occur
parallel to tunnel alignment, and all faults healed
with rock mass generally intact; (2) no slickenside
features or swelling noted in the cores (implied for
mass), and no indication of swelling ground; (3) no
air-slaking materials known from cores and shales of
limited extent; and (4) no ground-water in¯ow is
expected.
The contractor was convinced that a top-heading
or a full-face tunneling method as planned was
impractical. The rock mass varied from hard to
soft, the highly weathered, sheared, and fractured
rocks air-slaked on exposure, and large slabs
could be air-spaded or chipped off easily, and blast-
ing was controlled and used sparingly.
Consequently, the contractor changed mining
methods to the plumb-post method (Cooney, 1952)
after driving the north bore 178 ft from the east portal.
Mining progressed from two header foot-block drifts
9 ft wide on each side at the base of the tunnel section
(Fig. 12). The remaining 60% of the face excavation
were removed with a breast-board machine. A design
controversy immediately arose because the contractor
had originally recommended the stronger Type-B (full
circle) tunnel support in sectors of the tunnels with
soft-weak rock conditions but the city rejected this
proposed change in design.
4.2.2. Overview
The Broadway tunnel experience emphasizes the
importance of an accurate interpretation of drill core
data, and the ability to distinguish geologic defects in
the rock mass from mechanical ¯aws created by drilling
operations. Such ability is largely a matter of good
judgment by an experienced applied geologist.
4.3. Folsom dam, 1948±1956
The multi-purpose Folsom dam and reservoir
project east of Sacramento, utilized geologic guidance
for the site selection, planning-design and construc-
tion phases. The 4.8 miles of dams consist of a high
concrete gravity dam with earthen wing embankments
on the American River and nine saddle dams on small
tributaries. The Mormon Island auxiliary earth®ll dam
was built across the ancestral Blue Ravine channel of
South Fork American River.
The main dam and most saddle embankments are
founded on extensively fractured/sheared and
weathered quartz diorite; on-site `outcrops' were
usually residual weathered boulders underlain by
erratic depths of highly weathered rock. The stages
of weathering Ð slight, moderate, highly Ð were
established by their respective petrographic and
physical properties. This classi®cation strengthened
the geologist's ability to estimate depths to suitable
foundation rock. Conventional subsurface explora-
tion techniques investigated the main dam with
cored-borings, geophysical surveys, bore hole
camera photography, down-hole logging of man-
sized openings, and 48-in. auger/calyx holes.
Foundation excavation for the main dam
progressed in three separate contract stages, based
on the design investigations. Extensively weathered
rock at each successive excavation-level veri®ed the
limitations of small-diameter cored boring data to
clarify the complexity of a weathered rock mass.
Additional exploration was required prior to the
second and third stages of excavation, by shallow
percussion drill holes, shafts, adits, and man-sized
holes. The degree and extent of weathered rock at
excavation-levels are shown on three-dimensional
diagrams as are faults delineated in foundation rock
and zones requiring dental treatment (Fig. 13).
Core trenches of earth®ll and saddle embankments
G.A. Kiersch / Engineering Geology 59 (2001) 1±4924
Fig. 13. Three-stage block diagram of excavation, right abutment (west) Folsom dam that illustrates the diverse weathering characteristics of
foundation rock and associated geologic features. Conditions exposed at each level aided in predicting the extent and type of weathered rock at
subsequent levels and the ®nal foundation elevation (Kiersch and Treasher, 1955).
G.A. Kiersch / Engineering Geology 59 (2001) 1±49 25
were grouted on a split-method pattern. Grouting the
permeable, highly weathered quartz diorite was
dif®cult due to the abundance of clayey-®lled
fractures. Impervious earth®ll was `borrowed' from
areas of highly weathered quartz diorite; permeable
®ll was supplied from alluvium deposits. Full details
on Folsom project are given elsewhere by Kiersch and
Treasher (1955, pp. 271±310).
The powerhouse was placed in a deep excavation
250 ft below the river channel for additional power
head. The Mormon Island auxiliary dam is founded
on metamorphic rocks that underlie the auriferous
gravels of Blue Ravine Channel. The Folsom project
was constructed prior to knowledge of any seismic
history in region. Since, the State of California has
re-evaluated and declared the project susceptible
to seismic activity (Sherburne and Hauge, 1975).
Consequently the Mormon Island dam received
remedial upgrading treatment in 1990s by the US
Corps of Engineers.
4.4. Geological mapping SPCo lands Ð related
engineered works, 1955±1961
The most ambitious private geological mapping
project of its day was completed between 1955 and
1961 by the Southern Paci®c Corporation (SPCo), a
geological survey and evaluation of its landholdings
in California, Nevada, and Utah (earlier studies 1909±
1925; Fig. 5). The broad-based geologic mapping and
related special projects were designed to provide
technical guidance and a comprehensive database
to manage the SPCo lands for the ensuing 50-year
period. The SPCo Board of Directors authorized a
geological survey with exploration and evaluation
of company lands in 1954 for guidance in their
management as well as assistance to the industrial
and resources departments and related SPCo engi-
neering projects of railroad and pipelines.
The survey was operating at full strength by late
1955 and consisted of ®ve regional/areal mapping
crews in ®eld plus supporting researchers and of®ce
staff of professionals along with a separate special-
projects staff that investigated prospects and resource
development in the follow-up phase. Some 22,000
miles, the equivalent of 93, 15 min quadrangles,
were mapped (scale of 1:24,000) on standardized
SPCo-prepared two-township base maps. All lands
within the 40-mile strip were mapped for geologic
trends and features that could project onto or impact
SPCo holdings. The alternate odd-numbered sections
of Southern Paci®c's land-grant holdings, were 38%
of the area investigated (Kiersch, 1958, 1959; Fig. 5).
The geological survey utilized all the principles and
geological techniques available in the 1950s and
followed the broad steps outlined in Stages 1±6
(Fig. 14). Parts of the survey mapping were incorpo-
rated into the 1959±1969 edition of the Geologic
Atlas and Map of California (Jennings, 1969) and
an early edition of the Geologic Map of Nevada
(Webb and Wilson, 1962).
The large-scale geologic mapping combined with a
systematic inventory of known or potential resources
served a host of uses for new construction, mainte-
nance of engineered works, the railroads trackway,
land management, and a means of attracting new
industry and developments for rail service. Resources
data on minerals, fuels, water, soils, or engineering
materials became an asset, whether for maintaining
the railroad trackways in dif®cult and slide-prone
terrain, or providing additional freight and/or lease
revenue from untapped deposits. `Nonmineral' lands
were managed exclusively for their surface value or
ground-water without concern for possible future
mineral leasing. This approach provided a suitable
understanding of geologic conditions and their rele-
vance to agriculture, grazing, timber, recreation, and
commercial plant sites, as well as guidance for litiga-
tion and claims ®led against SPCo. The geological
database was also utilized to select new sites for
major industrial developments and provide guidance
on geological problems arising from operation of the
railroad system and the SPCo oil-supply pipeline,
such as, mitigation of slides, earthquake damage,
and tunnel failures. The Alta landslide is one such
use of the survey's database.
4.4.1. Alta landslide, trans-continental railroad
The major slope failure and debris slide of April 1958
near Baxter, California, blocked the main west-east
transcontinental railroad and temporarily closed US
Highway 40. The ®nancial losses sustained by SPCo
approached $1 million/day. Geological data collected
earlier by the SPCo survey from nearby lands provided
a knowledge of ground-water conditions and physical
properties of the unstable tuffaceous Tertiary rock units
G.A. Kiersch / Engineering Geology 59 (2001) 1±4926
G.A
.K
iersch/
En
gin
eering
Geo
logy
59
(2001)
1±
49
27
Fig. 14. Flow chart for the regional/areal approach to geoscience investigations for site selection and design of engineered works (from Kiersch, 1958, 1964).
that caused the trackway collapse, and the subsurface
conditions downslope from the railroad that affected
and temporarily closed Highway 40 (Fig. 15A and B).
Fortunately, the immediate cause of failure was
temporarily mitigated within four days and the main
line returned to one-way traf®c, which avoided some
of ®nancial loss. Long-term stabilization was
achieved only after an extensive geologic investiga-
tion of the site in the fall of 1959 outlined the total
slide mass. This effort included obtaining cored-
boring data, installing horizontal drains along hillside
of trackway, and evaluating a joint effort for long-time
G.A. Kiersch / Engineering Geology 59 (2001) 1±4928
Fig. 15. (A) Alta slide of 14 April 1958. Looking westward along outer track that was undercut and destroyed by caving. Note: Toe of slope
intact; area later impacted by the surcharge of waste debris removed for track widening. Shows steep cliff of case-hardened tuff beds with
contact between rock units near track-level. For downhill extension of total slide area see (B); pilings indicated area of original caving/sliding
(source: Kiersch 4-14-58, 1962). (B) Alta slide California Ð looking uphill from future I-80 Highway alignment in October 1959 after the cut
in tuff beds above railroad grade was benched and stabilized. Note: pilings for marker shown Fig. 15-A and the original small-slide that
subsequently spread down slope and triggered large-scale movement. Recent ®ll in foreground shows extensive movement that impacted US
Highway-40 immediately downhill. Stabilization required deep drains located in the underlying Tertiary gravels. The slide mass of low-shear
strength was saturated 30±40 ft below the surface and monitored by a network of borings and water-¯ow test holes (source: Kiersch 10-14-59, 1962).
stability of the slide with the California Department of
Highway. This led to construction of an extensive
drain-system downslope of the SPCo trackway
(Fig. 16) to stabilize the area for construction of
the I-80 freeway that replaced the damaged Highway 40
(Kiersch, 1962, pp. 135±144).
4.4.2. Railroad causeway Ð SPCo, Great Salt Lake,
Utah
An outstanding example of a calculated risk is the
design and construction of a Southern Paci®c railroad
embankment across the Great Salt Lake to replace the
12-mile-long timber trestle that was built at the
beginning of this century (inset, Fig. 17). The new
®ll, which was built during 1956±1959, started from
the old ®ll sections and ran parallel to the trestle,
located 1500 ft to the north. This ensured that
construction of the ®ll would not endanger the trestle
(Casagrande, 1965).
Preconstruction laboratory strength tests on undis-
turbed samples of the soft and sensitive silty clay and
Glauber's salt units, which underlie the lake to a great
depth (Fig. 17) and the foundation for the causeway,
indicated the design would involve great uncertainties.
The Glauber's salt varies greatly in thickness and
strength and underlies the ®ll for many miles, with
its upper surface at a depth of 20±30 ft below lake
bottom. This seriously complicated the design and
construction of the ®ll (Fig. 17); several design stages
for the cross section on soft clay (no salt layer) are
given by Casagrande (1965).
To achieve an economical design it became neces-
sary to build full-scale test ®lls and induce failures;
these ®eld tests developed data on the in situ strength
of the foundation units. Particularly impressive were
the failures of ®ll founded on the Glauber's salt layer
(Fig. 17). For practical purposes the salt had to carry
the entire lateral thrust of the ®ll. When the salt
buckled, the ®ll sank into the soft clay with extra-
ordinary speed. Even the most pessimistic initial
assumptions of the consultants did not prepare them
for the very low in situ strength of the soft clay, gained
from the analysis of the test section failures and other
®ll sections. Although the consulting board ®rst
recommended construction of full-scale test sections
for design data, they soon learned that a test ®ll could
be built only by mobilizing most of the expensive
equipment needed for construction of the entire
embankment. Consequently, the `as-built' causeway
became the `test section,' which was closely moni-
tored and modi®ed according to the `as-encountered'
foundation units. This resulted in successful comple-
tion of the project one year ahead of schedule
(Casagrande, 1965). Success would not have been
achieved however, if the consultants had known
before construction the `as-is' strength of the Glauber's
salt and clay beds would control the stability of the
embankment. Moreover, Southern Paci®c probably
would not have authorized the project. Based on the
`as-built' knowledge of the foundation units, the
conventional factor of safety required would have
forced a design ®ll costing far in excess of the 1955
estimate and $50 million limit established by the
Board of Directors of Southern Paci®c Corporation.
Although the initial misinterpretation of subsurface
units and their inherent strengths allowed the project
to get underway, the adoption of ®eld test data and
evaluation of the risk as construction progressed
resulted in its successful completion.
A ®ll built on normally consolidated clay has its
lowest factor of safety against foundation failure
during construction or immediately after its comple-
tion. Since the new railroad causeway was put in
operation (1959) the rate of settlement has gradually
decreased in a consistent pattern that re¯ects a
steadily increasing strength of the clay.
The Great Salt Lake causeway project is a good
example of what Karl Terzaghi liked to call the
`observational approach,' i.e. the continuous evaluation
of observations and new information for redesigning
as needed while construction is in progress. It also
illustrates Terzaghi's belief `a design is not completed
until the construction is successfully completed'
(Casagrande, 1965).
The calculated risks involved in this project would
not be complete without mentioning another risk. The
`sand and gravel' used for the main body of the under-
water ®ll was largely a silty sand. The question of its
stability under dynamic stresses was of serious
concern to the consultants and a calculated risk
which could have defeated the design and ultimate
construction.
4.5. Auburn Dam controversy, 1948±1979
Major geological and geotechnical investigations
G.A. Kiersch / Engineering Geology 59 (2001) 1±49 29
G.A. Kiersch / Engineering Geology 59 (2001) 1±4930
were carried out in the 1950s±1970s in support of the
design and construction of the authorized Auburn
Dam at a site on the North Fork of American River,
upstream of Folsom project. This long and expensive
controversy is a classic case of `differing professional
opinions' concerning the safety and design-costs of
`the world's largest thin-arch, double-curvature high
dam' proposed east of Sacramento, California.
Authorized in 1948, the US Bureau of Reclamation
(USBR) spent years and millions of dollars conduct-
ing technical and scienti®c investigations to support
the dam's construction and operation (Gardner et al.,
1957). Yet the ®ndings of the USBR's investigations,
interpretation of the data, and conclusions became
questionable, when evaluated by other experienced
technical groups, after the Oroville earthquake of
August 1975. This event ruptured the ground surface
of the Cleveland Hill fault, a strand of the Sierra
Nevada Foothills fault system, and con®rmed the
region was more seismically active than previously
believed (Sherburne and Hauge, 1975). Subsequently,
additional site-speci®c and regional investigations
were carried out by the USBR, other governmental
agencies, and respected consulting ®rms (Borcherdt
et al., 1975; USBR, 1977, 1978; Woodward-Clyde,
1977). They collectively expressed concern that
faults, known within the foundation area, are poten-
tially `active' and the dam had to be re-designed to
withstand the ground displacement of an active fault
(Davis et al., 1979).
The diverse and strong differences of opinion
concerning the Auburn damsite features were based
on geological data gained from subsurface-trench
exposures of datable sediments overlying bedrock
faults, either displaced or unbroken (Shlemon,
1985). Separate agencies or consultants emplaced
trenches side-by-side, yet often arrived at different
conclusions. The myriad of trenches at and near the
damsite resembled a World War I battle®eld. Tech-
nical controversy abounded concerning the `safety' of
project and hearings were conducted before various
regulatory agencies, both for and against the site and
project design. Ultimately the controversies led to a
`deferral' of the proposed dam at the 1948 site. Public
interest in a dam on the North Fork has continued;
other nearby sites and dam designs have been
proposed, particularly after ¯oods caused damage
to urban areas downstream (after Shlemon, 1999
(written communication)).
Despite the strong diversity of technical opinion,
the Auburn controversy provided valuable bene®ts
to the engineering±geology community, even though
the investigations and arguments took place when
environmental concerns were increasing in popularity;
perhaps the dam was a `victim' of the 1970s trend.
The various types of investigations and techniques
used to ascertain the relative activity of faults at the
damsite substantially improved the local geologic and
geotechnical standard-of-practice (Shlemon et al.,
1992).
4.6. Nuclear power plants
Increasing electricity demands triggered the plan-
ning for construction of nuclear power plants in late
1950s. Each plant design required seismotectonic
investigations to establish the recent last movement
on fault zones within the region/area. This Federal
requirement advanced the scienti®c techniques/
methods for dating tectonic events that included a
sequential history of multiple alluvial units, dating
the associated minerals, and a correlation with
tectonic and geomorphologic features. Soil science
techniques proved basic to dating Quaternary sedi-
ments (Shlemon, 1985), and classi®cation of fault
zones as active, potentially active, and/or dormant.
In early years the associated geologic features/
processes were seemingly not as critical than in later
years to the designers, constructors, and regulatory
agencies. Early geological investigations for plant
sites (1950s±1960s) pioneered the licensing proce-
dures and ultimate technical requirements leading to
termination or delay of four California projects,
G.A. Kiersch / Engineering Geology 59 (2001) 1±49 31
Fig. 16. Plan View Ð corrective measures that stabilized `lower' Alta slide involving the Interstate I-80 alignment. Lowering water table
required 30 in. diameter wells installed on 8 ft centers between the highway and railroad alignment and shown as drainage galleries. The wells
are inter-connected at the bottom and the galleries are joined to the transverse stabilization trenches which are spaced on 8 ft centers and are
30 ft deep and 12 ft wide at bottom with 1 1/4:1 side slopes (modi®ed after Cauley, 1962).
G.A
.K
iersch/
En
gin
eering
Geo
logy
59
(2001)
1±
49
32
Fig. 17. Southern Paci®c Railroad, Great Salt Lake causeway. Embankment construction and the reaction of subsurface geologic units, particularly near-surface bed of Glauber's
salt. The section shows typical exploration holes and the composition of the lake beds to depths of more than 200 ft at Lucin, Utah (after Haley and Aldrich Co., personal
communication; Currey and Lambrechts, personal communications; Kiersch, 1991, p. 552).
Bodega Head, Malibu, and Diablo Canyon, and the
Vallecito test reactor.
By the 1970s, siting work required a more sophis-
ticated appreciation of geologic constraints such as
earthquake impact, subsidence, slope stability, and
foundation integrity (Hatheway and McClure, 1979).
The concerns for hazardous constraints were initially
formalized by the US Atomic Energy Commission
(AEC, 1971) in Siting Criteria for Nuclear Power
Plants and after modi®cation released in the Code
of Federal Regulations (1977). Based on historical
seismicity, regional geology, and site-foundation
conditions, the seismologist provided a reasonable
estimate of the safe-shutdown earthquake.
The required federal license to construct and
operate nuclear power plants is awarded through a
demanding process and high level of assurance as to
suitability of the site. Consequently, applicants for
permits and operating license usually organized
large teams of scienti®c and technical personnel to
compile the Preliminary Safety Analysis Report
(PSAR) required for each plant. Geologists were a
key part of any team both for the site-speci®c and
regional assessment of the environs. To avoid costly
delays, many owners initiated a regional geological
study as the ®rst step toward identifying candidate
areas/sites (Kiersch, 1991, pp. 357±361). The licensing
organization assessed the risk associated with the
safety-related, geologic aspects of sites, and coped
with any intervenors who raised real or imagined
safety concerns. The Final Safety Analysis Report
(FSAR) included an evaluation of the site and geo-
logical `®ndings' during construction.
Many key geological issues identi®ed in the siting
or licensing phases of the 1960s and 1970s were
analogous to problems confronting researchers in
applied geosciences today, e.g. evaluation of remote
imagery, proof of subsurface stratigraphic continuity,
evaluation of potential fault activity (Wallace, 1986),
recency of fault movement that may involve datable
minerals or marker paleosols (Shlemon, 1985),
ground-water conditions of site, and the subsidence
potential, including dissolution of the foundation
material. Both classical and engineering geology
principles and practices are invariably required to
resolve such critical issues.
The overriding goal of each nuclear plant applicant
was Ð construct a safe power plant within budget.
However, it became `impossible' to maintain
construction schedules by the late 1970s within the
allotted funds. This reality and a decreased demand
for electricity resulted in the termination of many
nuclear projects by 1980. The lesson learned was Ð
`effective management and judgment requires ef®cient
communication and the coordinated input of both
scienti®c and technical data to achieve cost-ef®cient
licensing'. An average of 10±13 years were required
to satisfactorily resolve all issues and start up a new
generating facility (McClure and Hatheway, 1979;
Fig. 2).
4.6.1. Bodega Head nuclear site
This nuclear project was the ®rst site in the United
States for which active faults were an important
consideration (Bonilla, 1991, pp. 253±256). The
Bodega Head site 82 km north of San Francisco is
about 0.3 km from the western edge of 1906 San
Andreas fault trace (Fig. 18). During excavation of
the shaft for the reactor, a slip surface was found in
the unconsolidated sediments overlying the quartz
G.A. Kiersch / Engineering Geology 59 (2001) 1±49 33
Fig. 18. Map showing relation of Bodega Head nuclear reactor
site to San Andreas fault zone. The 1906 surface rupture on
San Andreas fault was near the northeastern edge of the fault
zone (modi®ed from Schlocker and Bonilla, 1964; Bonilla in
Kiersch, 1991, p. 253).
diorite bedrock. The slip surface and its characteristics
raised several debated questions Ð was it truly a
tectonics `fault', or merely the edge of a landslide in
unconsolidated sediments? These questions led to a
thorough review of all surface ruptures accompanying
the 1906 earthquake (Schlocker and Bonilla, 1964).
Siting investigations that began in 1958 were
terminated in 1964 (Novick, 1969) after US Atomic
Energy Commission (1962, p. 3510) stated that a
nuclear reactor should not be placed `closer than one-
fourth mile from the surface location of a known active
earthquake fault'. This ambiguous criterion was later
modi®ed (US Regulatory Commission, 1977, p. 413)
to `movement at or near the ground surface at least
once within past 35,000 years or of a recurring nature
within past 500,000 years in de®nition of a capable
fault'. The US Atomic Energy Commission (1964)
concluded that `Bodega Head is not a suitable location
for a proposed nuclear power plant' on 30 October 1964,
and the Paci®c Gas and Electric abandoned their plans
three days later (Novick, 1969).
4.6.2. Malibu reactor site
This site lies within the Malibu coast zone of
deformation and just south of the Malibu coast thrust
fault, 45 km west of Los Angeles, California. The major
east±west fault experienced principal movement
between late Miocene and late Pleistocene. Investiga-
tions related to the project showed that a fault of
unknown age traversed the proposed location of the
reactor containment vessel and that several late Pleisto-
cene faults existed in the Malibu coast zone outside the
plant site (Yerkes and Wentworth, 1965). In addition to
these local conditions, the regional setting was an
important factor in evaluation of this site which lies in
an east±west belt of moderate seismicity that contains
the Malibu coast zone. A combination of local and
regional evidence led to the conclusion that the east±
west structural zone containing the nuclear reactor site is
tectonically active (Yerkes and Wentworth, 1965;
Marblehead Land Company, 1966). The existing data
relating fault length to earthquake magnitude were used
to some extent in estimating the size of potential earth-
quakes near the Malibu site (Benioff, 1965; Albee and
Smith, 1967).
At Malibu, faults whose most recent displacement
was between 10,000 and about 180,000 years ago
were nevertheless considered capable of surface rupture
for purposes of reactor design (Atomic Safety and
Licensing Board, 1966; US Atomic Energy Commis-
sion, 1967). This ®nding resulted in the Atomic Energy
Commission deciding the Malibu reactor would have to
be designed for fault displacement. The Los Angeles
Department of Water and Power withdrew their
construction permit on 30 May 1973. The State of
California later formally zoned the Malibu coast fault
as `active' based on site-speci®c trenching and dating
(Drumm, 1992; Rzonca, et al., 1991).
4.6.3. Diablo Canyon nuclear power station
The discovery of an offshore fault after the Diablo
Canyon project was under construction (1968) caused
many delays and greatly increased the overall costs.
The plant site on the central California Coast is 20 km
southwest of San Luis Obispo. In 1971, a petroleum
publication noted an unnamed fault a short distance
offshore from plant site (Hoskins and Grif®ths, 1971).
This information triggered an investigation by US
Geological Survey that con®rmed the fault existed
(named Hosgri fault) and earthquakes had occurred
along its length (Wagner, 1974). The US Geological
Survey concluded a magnitude 7.5 earthquake could
occur on Hosgri fault within 5 km of nuclear plant.
The suggested magnitude of 7.5 earthquake and
associated ground-motion parameters were much
larger than considered in designing the plant and an
extensive re-analysis and modi®cations were required
(Lawroski, 1978; Piper, 1981) at several times the
original cost estimate.
4.6.3. Vallecito nuclear reactor
An incorrect evaluation of the geologic environs of
a major engineered works can cause the project to be
unjustly terminated. Such a case involved the Vallecito
nuclear test reactor (GETR) near Pleasanton, California
(Fig. 19) with a devastating effect on an operating
G.A. Kiersch / Engineering Geology 59 (2001) 1±4934
Fig. 19. The Verona fault and controversy relative to the Vallecito, General Electric nuclear reactor facility. The plan map shows the
distribution of postulated thrust faults and headscarps of landslides. The section shows an interpretation of landslide slip surfaces and fault
slip surfaces in the vicinity of the GETR facility (after Rice et al., 1979; Earth Science Associates/R.C. Harding; in Kiersch, 1991, p. 520).
G.A. Kiersch / Engineering Geology 59 (2001) 1±49 35
industry. The case became controversial due to the
possible implications of the `active' Verona fault on
the test reactor.
Vallecito, a small facility of General Electric
Company, was the ®rst US-licensed commercial
reactor in 1959; the neutron-radiography facility
produced one-half of the free world's medical radio-
isotopes. In 1977, the US Geological Survey reviewed
the geology and seismology of the reactor area, as
required for renewal of the operating license.
Extensive trenches and exploration in the vicinity
of the GETR revealed at least three northwest-
trending, thrust-like faults bracketing the reactor site
(Fig. 19). The fault zones exposed in the trenches are
similar to each other in minor structural features and
age of displacement; none intersected the GETR
foundation (Fig. 19). All rupture planes displace
Plio±Pleistocene Livermore Gravels and younger
colluvium and paleosols. The attitudes of the rupture
planes and their relation to local topographic features,
together with other geologic evidence, suggested two
plausible origins; tectonic thrust movement (Herd,
1977); or large-scale landslides (Rice et al., 1979).
The mapped length of Herd's Verona fault is less
than 6 miles, and placed the potentially active Verona
fault close to the reactor (Herd, 1977); the 1958 map
(Hall, 1958) and basis for the construction license,
showed a fault about 2800 ft from the reactor.
After many technical investigations by US
Geological Survey and the owner's consultants,
Earth Science Associates and Richard Jahns, and
hearings over a 5-year period, the US Nuclear
Regulatory Commission ruled in 1982 the zone was
not a hazard to operation of the commercial reactor
and accepted the arguments for landslide features.
However, the 5-year shutdown over geological issues
destroyed a pro®table business which could not be
revived by General Electric and the unit was
abandoned.
4.7. Urban land-use risks, San Francisco Bay area
A regional geologic investigation to initially
evaluate the natural hazards and potential risks
throughout the San Francisco Bay region was initiated
by the US Geological Survey in 1947. The ®rst
mapping projects were organized under Clifford
Kaye and consisted of the San Francisco North
quadrangle by Bonilla, Schlocker, and Radbruch
(Schlocker, 1974), followed by San Francisco South
(Bonilla, 1960), and the Oakland West and East
Quadrangles by Radbruch-Hall (1957, 1969). These
mapping activities extended into the 1960s and
included attention to ongoing construction projects,
such as the Broadway tunnel, described earlier. The
areal mapping provided both surface and subsurface
information critical to understanding common urban
land use risks in the Bay region such as landslide
susceptibility (Bonilla, 1960; Brabb et al., 1972) and
land use for a housing subdivision (Kachadoorian,
1956).
McGill, in his mapping in Los Angeles area, made
some of the ®rst age classi®cations of the common
landslide features so widespread in the Palos Verdes
peninsula area and other parts of the region. Further-
more, he speci®ed the on-going state of risk of each
slide feature, based on its origin and recency of move-
ment. McGill later designated the study of geology
related to city areas as `urban geology' (McGill,
1964, 1968).
Brabb and others initiated a San Francisco Bay area
study in the 1960s on a wide range of potential urban
`risks' and related geologic conditions that affected
the growth, population, and cost of construction.
Subsequently in the 1970s, these investigations were
concentrated on a broad `Landslides and Seismic
Zonation Study of San Francisco Bay Region'
(Brabb, 1979). Additional detailed studies on seismic
zonation of the Bay Region were described by Borch-
erdt (1975), wherein he outlines an excellent set of
guidelines for similar surveys. As recognized earlier,
the seismic zonation based on the 1906 earthquake
events were closely correlated with the areal distribu-
tion of the principal geologic materials (Fig. 3A and
B). The Loma Prieta earthquake of 17 October 1989
afforded further opportunities to demonstrate the
impact/in¯uence of geologic materials on the ampli-
®cation of ground motion throughout the Bay area
(Plafker and Galloway, 1989).
5. Geologic processes, constraints, and resources
Another urban project to evaluate the `risk' potential
of geological phenomena/processes active in the San
Francisco Bay Region (SFBRS) was a cooperative
G.A. Kiersch / Engineering Geology 59 (2001) 1±4936
G.A. Kiersch / Engineering Geology 59 (2001) 1±49 37
Fig. 20. Fault traces in the San Francisco Bay region that may undergo recurring movement and cause damaging earthquakes with surface
displacements. Most of the faults are members of the San Andreas fault system (modi®ed from Borcherdt, 1975, in Kiersch, 1991, p. 372).
effort by the US Geological Survey and the US
Department of Housing and Urban Development
(HUD. The SFBRS study utilized USGS expertise in
geology, geophysics, geochemistry, hydrology, and
cartography and HUD expertise in planning. The ®nd-
ings were focused toward planners and decision
makers with an expectation of increasing the use of
geology for resolving urban and regional development
problems in environmentally sensitive areas. The
database assembled provided guidance and practical
techniques to the scienti®c, engineering, and planning
professions who advise on urban developments
(Brown and Kockelman, 1983). For instance, because
major faults of the San Francisco Bay region are
active and may experience recurring movement and
thus earthquake damage, a classi®cation of their
potential for surface displacement (Fig. 20) can be
correlated with areas in the region likely to experience
such common occurrences as seismically induced
shaking, ¯ooding, liquefaction, and landsliding.
The aim of the HUD study was to demonstrate the
occurrence of these geologic processes and their
manner of constraint relative to urban and regional
planning (Little, 1975), and thereby improve on the
safety of urban planning techniques in a real-life
situation (Laird et al., 1979). An overview of this
bench-mark project reminds decision-makers of the
intimate relation between the natural on-going
processes and land use with widespread impact from
the estuaries and bay-water terrain to the coastal bluffs
(Brown and Kockelman, 1983).
5.1. Residential dwellings Ð insurance
Frequently the most common and costly area of
alleged liability for applied geologists and geotechnical
engineers are related to residential construction. Tens
of millions of dollars in damages are alleged each year
by home and building owners who contend their
structures were damaged by swelling or subsiding
foundations, slope failures, wet basements, or fault
movements. Such cases are generally quite similar;
damages to residences occur years after the structures
are built. Frequently the question of who is truly
responsible is circumvented; a ®nancial settlement is
based on who has the most effective lawyer or the
deepest pocket. Consequently applied geologists
who accept work involving the siting and construction
of residences or similar structures should be aware of
the potential for being held responsible later for
controversial damages, regardless of how thorough
the geologic work. To avoid such litigation, all
geological reports and opinions on residential
construction should be properly quali®ed relative to
the potential for and nature of possible foundation
dif®culties or slope failures.
5.1.1. Landslide insurance Ð Pfeiffer case
The Pfeiffer precedent-setting litigation illustrates
how geologic facts, events, and terminology can be
central to a settlement between the insured and
the insurer. Gravity sliding damaged the dwelling of
the insured. Geological investigations ascertained the
causes, possibility of recurrence, and the inherent risk
of rebuilding on the site. Geological and engineering
testimony was judicious as to whether there was negli-
gence on the part of the builder or the insurance
company; neither realized the geologic setting was a
`risk'. Geologic facts con®rmed that the causes were
visible. Gravity sliding was foreseeable; and the
extensive damage to Pfeiffer property could not be
passed over by the insurance company as `an act of
God' (Kiersch, 1969).
The main issue of Pfeiffer case concerned `whether
an insurance policy that insures a dwelling against the
perils of a landslide includes restoration of the sub-
surface foundation beneath the home, as well as the
surface building (house structure) itself'. This crucial
point had not been clari®ed by a court decision prior
to the Pfeiffer litigation in 1960. Customarily
insurance companies declared no responsibility for
the subsurface foundation of the dwelling, and
award damages for repair of the surface building only.
The Pfeiffer dwelling is situated on the slope of a
northwest-trending ridge of the Berkeley Hills at
Orinda, California (Fig. 21). The area is underlain
by rocks of the Orinda Formation, mainly alternating
beds of siltstone, soft, ®ne-grained sandstone and
conglomerate, clay shale, and clays. The rocks dip
as much as 458 at the site and generally parallel to
the natural slopes of 20±408. The soft, fractured, and
saturated Orinda beds are overlain by as much as 10 ft
of colluvium. Details of the gravity sliding movement,
as determined by surface and subsurface investiga-
tions and borings, are described elsewhere by Kiersch
(1969).
G.A. Kiersch / Engineering Geology 59 (2001) 1±4938
G.A. Kiersch / Engineering Geology 59 (2001) 1±49 39
Fig. 21. Geologic map of landslide and associated features, Pfeiffer property and vicinity, Orinda, California. Dwelling displaced and damaged;
foundation sheared, distorted, and subsurface moved (sources: Kiersch 1969, 1991, p. 569).
Sliding began soon after Robert J. Pfeiffer
purchased the newly constructed home in December
1957. An insurance policy written by the General
Insurance Corporation insured the dwelling against
hazards of ®re, and an attached endorsement provided
protection against natural events such as landslides.
Major gravity sliding began in the soil and bedrock
upslope from the dwelling on 3 April 1958; the
building was partially distorted and twisted, and the
subsurface foundation sheared/moved. Within two
days the house was unsafe for occupancy, and the
family moved out. Sliding continued intermittently
for several months and damage to the dwelling
increased until the garage section was demolished;
the house structure was further damaged, and the
foundation additionally weakened and unstable
because of being fractured, deformed, and displaced
by the sliding.
The multiple landslides shown in Fig. 21 were caused
by a series of events, both ancient and recent, that
combined to induce sliding in April 1958. The natural
and man-induced factors responsible included the slide-
prone characteristics of the weathered Orinda rocks, the
occurrence of an old, active landslide within the 1958
slide mass, the heavy in¯ow of surface runoff and a high
ground-water level, the construction activities on Hall
Drive and near the Pfeiffer dwelling affected the toe of
natural slope, and surface water in®ltrated the hillside
slope from a broken water main on Hall Drive, owing to
earlier sliding (Fig. 21).
The General Insurance Corporation refused to
accept responsibility for the total damage to the dwell-
ing. Rather, they only agreed to repair the house struc-
ture, at a cost up to $8000, and adamantly refused to
accept responsibility for repair of the damaged
subsurface foundation area, a part of the active land-
slide mass. Moreover, after repairing the housing
structure, the insurer would likely cancel the
insurance policy, an action and attitude contrary to
Pfeiffer's interpretation of the all-physical-loss-
coverage that included landslides.
The Pfeiffer litigation recovered the maximum
amount set forth in the policy for landslide damage
to their dwelling. They were awarded $31,000 in a
court judgment of August 1960 for repair of their
dwelling, and return to the `as-built' conditions of
house and foundation prior to the landslide damage.
Other cases that preceded the Pfeiffer opinion had lent
authority of precedent for an insurance company to
cancel a policy. Nevertheless the Pfeiffer ruling estab-
lished that henceforth an insurance company can not
cancel a policy when sliding and/or land movement is
ongoing. The Pfeiffer property was stablized, house
repaired and dwelling safely re-occupied ever since.
5.2. Other sources Ð western projects
There are a number of recent publications that
concentrate on the selective GeoScience principles,
phenomena, innovative techniques, and claryifying
case histories of western projects that are basic to
the application of GeoScience theory and practice of
Environmental/Engineering Geology, Hydrogeology,
Geological and Geotechnical Engineering, and related
disciplines. These special volumes are on: State of
Washington (Galster, 1989); Southern California
(Pipkin and Proctor, 1992); State of Oregon (Burns,
1997); Landslides (Turner and Schuster, 1996) and
Land subsidence (Borchers, 1998).
6. Future Ð practice
The most suitable geologic practitioners for
guidance or counsel on geoscience for engineered
works are those who have a broad training in
geoscience and supporting subjects, a background of
diverse ®eld experience, and a practical bent. Such
geoscientists are likely to have an in-depth knowledge
of the physical and chemical processes, which invari-
ably have a critical long-term impact on the regional
climate, tectonics, historical events, and rock materi-
als. Competent applied geoscientists will be needed
for a multitude of challenges to advance both ®eld and
computational skills concurrently with developing
public policies.
Our increasing population requires the settlement of
more and more hostile arguments regarding what is the
de®nition of a geo-risk (hazard) or an untenable
environment? What constitutes a terrain with acceptable
geo-risks, manageable geologic constraints or active
processes, yet when compared to other destructive
geologic processes can be documented as acceptable-
safe.
Moreover, future practitioners must be practical
and objective in analyzing the potential risk of such
destructive natural processes and events as
G.A. Kiersch / Engineering Geology 59 (2001) 1±4940
earthquakes, widespread ¯oods, areal subsidence,
mass wasting/slope failure, volcanic activity, and
¯uvial or coastal erosion. The current belief among
Federal, State, and most County agencies is that many
natural geologic processes and their expected impact are
invariably a risk or dangerous to the safety, health, and
well-being of mankind. This standard-practice evalua-
tion has been discussed by Shlemon (1999) and all to
often raises a warning that is out-of-proportion and
unrealistic to the inherent/danger levels of a `geo-risk'.
Most natural geologic processes and many man-
induced events that affect the near-surface are not
`life-threatening'. Dangers, yes, but they constitute
reasonable and acceptable-levels of risk, particularly
when compared with major natural events such as:
hurricanes, tornadoes, drought cycles, volcanic
eruptions or tsunamis (Fig. 10). The mature, ®eld-
experienced geologist is usually a realist and not a
social extremist. Consequently, the frequent map
and descriptive classi®cation of many geologic
processes and features as `hazardous' is a disservice
to `experienced geologic judgment'. Many of today's
major engineered works occupy sites in areas affected
by one or more on-going geologic processes (`risks' to
the inexperienced). Typically, during the planning-
construction phases troublesome or potentially risky
geologic conditions are mitigated by modi®cations
to the engineering design that upgrades the natural
site to a suitable geologic setting. Nevertheless,
there are some geographic areas with a particularly
high-level of risk that will require attention by future
practitioners.
Today, engineering geology is an interdisciplinary
®eld of practice that is primarily concerned with the
physical processes, phenomenology, and principles of
the geosciences as they pertain to engineered works,
applied sciences, and the needs of mankind. The prac-
titioners are mainly associated with the construction
efforts of engineers, scientists, and technical-
specialists; together they comprise a complex and inter-
dependent assemblage of sub®elds that support the
profession's generalists. Brief comments on several
sub®elds of practice in the twenty-®rst century follows.
6.1. Water resources
6.1.1. Geopolitical
Common to many natural resources, groundwater
knows no political boundaries. A single aquifer
system can underlie several political entities; the
recharge area in one jurisdiction and the discharge/
pumping area in another (e.g. US±Mexico; Libya±
Egypt; Colorado±Nebraska). Transboundary ground-
water resources have and will continue to generate
acrimony between nations, states, and Indian reserva-
tions (Navajo±Hopi).
Water is power and as practiced today in Middle
East can be a tool of foreign policy. Turkey has an
abundance of water harnessed by dams on the Upper
Euphrates River of eastern Turkey. Some of this water
is distributed by controlled ¯ow to both Syria and Iraq
downstream and in future probably to Jordan, Israel,
and Cyprus. Many experts believe this regional distri-
bution demonstrates why the twenty-®rst century will
be the century of water (Kinzer, 1999). GeoScience
insight can be bene®cial in advocating and promoting
a sharing of a common groundwater resource between
political jurisdictions.
Groundwater laws have been modi®ed in selected
regions (intermontane basins) due to advances in
geoscience knowledge (Mann, 1969). A recent
decision will lead to changes in the groundwater
laws in California, such as Acton vs Blundell (Grover
and Mann, 1991. The improved factual geologic
circumstances, along with the economic and social
conditions can undergo a change, as can the inherent
physical properties with time when impacted by
engineered works.
Recent studies con®rmed the transmissivity-rate of
groundwater movement in a faulted/fractured aquifer
may be controlled by the inherent stress ®eld of rock
mass (Ferril et al., 1999). Thus, contamination of a
site in stressed environs may accelerate instead of
inhibit the ¯uid ¯ow.
6.1.2. Bay±delta system
The CALFED, Bay±Delta System is a proposed
solution to the water management and environmental
problems of the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento Ð
San Joaquin Delta region of channels and tributaries
(CALFED, 1999). This complex, ecologically sensitive
maze of waterways and islands is a major contributor to
the water supply of the region and southern California;
it provides two-thirds of in-state drinking water and
irrigates farmlands that produce one-half of the nation's
fruits and vegetables.
G.A. Kiersch / Engineering Geology 59 (2001) 1±49 41
Over the years competing and diversi®ed interests
have fought for a share of the limited natural
resources; this action reduced the water quality,
deteriorated the levee system, and threatened the
infrastructure of private property and water quality,
while the island lands experienced subsidence
(Deverel et al., 1998).
The CALFED program began in 1995 and the
planners expect to restore the regional ecosystem
over a 10-year period. Technical experts, state and
federal of®cials, and stakeholders have worked
under CALFED to establish a long term solution to
the problems, of which many are GeoScience-
oriented (CALFED, 1999; Madigan, 1999).
6.1.3. DamsÐreservoirs
The construction of dam projects in western states
underwent a major shift in policy by Federal and State
agencies by 1990s. Today the major concerns involve
the upgrading of existing dam structures.
² Some long-standing structures are being breached
in anticipation the ®sh-run will return.
² Dams are being rehabilitated and modernized;
reservoirs ¯ushed to increase storage and hydro-
generating capacity, consistent with environmental
guidelines (Jansen, 1988; Collier et al., 1996;
World Press, 1997; USCOLD, 1999). For example,
the Roosevelt Dam, Arizona, completed in 1911
underwent modernization in 1988 with the dam
height being raised, and highway shifted from the
crest dam to a suspension bridge built upstream
(Fig. 22).
² Seismic risk design upgraded to meet seismic
`threat' previously unknown, e.g. Folsom project
Ð Morman Island earth®ll dam (Kiersch and
Treasher, 1955; Allen, in press).
The decline in building dams and related water-
supply projects has been offset in parts of western
states by increasing the purchase of water from
the storage basins beneath former ranches and
state or federal lands (e.g. San Diego municipali-
ties import water from storage basins of El Centro
region California).
6.1.4. Nuclear power plants
An increase in the global warming effects have been
G.A. Kiersch / Engineering Geology 59 (2001) 1±4942
Fig. 22. Roosevelt Dam on the Salt River, Arizona was the ®rst major irrigation project in western United States and has been operating since
1911. Beginning in 1988 the dam underwent rehabilitation and the capacity of reservoir was increased 20% by raising height of dam 77 ft. This
required removing the highway from crest of dam and erecting suspension bridge upstream across an arm of reservoir completed in 1990 (photo
courtesy of Department of Transportation, State of Arizona/Walter Gray, 1988).
attributed to the buildup of greenhouse emissions in the
atmosphere. The causes, according to the environmental
community, is the release of excessive carbon dioxide
emissions by fossil-fuel burning power generation
plants. Such plants are known to account for one-third
of the greenhouse emissions reportedly linked to global
warming.
The well-publicized nuclear plant mishaps at Three
Mile Island, in Russia and Japan contributed to the
cessation of new plants by 1980s in USA. However,
the rebirth of nuclear power plants has been advocated
by prominent environmentalists (John Holden,
Harvard; Mary L. Walker, former US Department of
Energy of®cial and others); they believe there is no
alternative. Advocates for future nuclear plants
propose mid-sized, standard design reactors in
600 MW range with a passive safety system;
construction would be assured with removal of federal
obstacles. This alternative to burning natural gas to
generate electricity in the twenty-®rst century would
meet the increasing demands for power while
reducing air pollution and greenhouse emissions.
GeoScience input and counsel has been a critical
part of the licensing through construction phases of
nuclear power plants with similar input for nuclear
waste repositories (e.g. Yucca Mountain, Nevada,
and the Department of Energy's operating site in
New Mexico).
6.1.5. Flood levels
The `probabilistic' methods of forecasting the
anticipated runoff at 100±500 year maximum levels
of recurrence requires revision, as evident by the
recent experiences and impact of `El Nino' rainfall
(Kelley, 1989; Mount, 1995). A more realistic
approach to an improved forecast is recorded in the
geologic history of past events, e.g. sedimentological
and geomorphological evidence of extraordinary
paleo-¯ood hydrology. Geologic evidence of former
high runoff levels, as recorded in sediments and
features of a river valley or drainage, can supply the
historic ¯ood-levels and events that are lacking
from the more recent stream gauging techniques
(Baker, 1987, 1989). Today the US Bureau of
Reclamation and other Federal and State agencies
focus on paleohydrology for assessment of `100-
year' ¯oods.
6.1.6. Military
Specialized weapons and launching platforms of
the future will embrace new GeoScience challenges.
For example, the multidisciplinary Global Informa-
tion System (GIS) technology will be adapted for
many worldwide industrial, civil and public-interest
projects, as well as vital national security issues.
Emerging public interest projects are frequently
dependent on GeoScience guidance and counsel
(Neal, 1997; Kiersch, 1998).
6.1.7. Hindsight
Many critical geologic lessons must be learned
more than once and by ®rst-hand experience only.
The importance of geological counsel and guidance
for engineered works is relearned whenever an unan-
ticipated geo-related condition is encountered.
However, when geologic monitoring is on-going, it
is likely that an unexpected problem may be realized
before costly delays or litigation has incurred. A more
complete understanding of geologic processes and a
`deterministic' approach to the natural systems will
allow the geoscientist to communicate more explicity
with the client, members of the technical team, and
with the public-at-large.
7. Conclusion
Future practitioners will assess and mitigate yet
unknown adverse geologic conditions and hostile
environs associated with major infrastructure facil-
ities such as: dams and reservoirs, tunnels, aqueducts,
power stations, interstate highway systems, major
water transfer works, military protective-construction,
and National Geopolitical issues. Such capabilities
will require practitioners with a suitable background
in GeoScience and a practical bent. Their focus must
be unfeigned when analyzing the public's safety
regarding such destructive natural processes and
events as earthquakes, widespread ¯oods, areal
subsidence, mass wasting/slope failure, volcanic
activity, and ¯uvial or coastal erosion. The widely
held belief that many natural geologic processes
and their expected impact are invariably a high-
level risk and dangerous to the safety, health, and
well-being of mankind is too often a trendy,
layman's analysis unsupported by critical ®eld
G.A. Kiersch / Engineering Geology 59 (2001) 1±49 43
data. Such a `standard-practice evaluation' frequently
raises a warning (Shlemon, 1999) that is out-of-
proportion and unrealistic to the actual levels of the
`geo-risk' when analyzed.
Most natural geologic processes and many man-
induced events that affect the near-surface are not
`life-threatening'; most often they constitute a
reasonable and acceptable-level of risk, when
compared with such major natural events as:
hurricanes, tornadoes, drought cycles, volcanic
eruptions or tsunamis (Fig. 10), which cannot be
`harnessed' or mitigated by geo-engineering techni-
ques or actions.
The mature, ®eld-experienced geologist is
usually a realist and not a social extremist. Conse-
quently, the frequent mapping and descriptive
classi®cation of most geologic processes and
features as `hazardous' is a disservice to `experi-
enced geologic judgment'. Many of today's major
engineered works are in areas affected by one or
more geologic processes (`risks' to the layman).
Typically, during the planning-design-construction
phases any troublesome geologic or potentially hazar-
dous conditions are inherently mitigated by engineering
design modi®cations that upgrade the natural site into a
safe and suitable geologic setting. Nevertheless, there
are some areas that particularly require attention by
future practitioners.
Engineering Geology practice today consists of:
any geoscience work relevant to the civil and mili-
tary engineering activities and National Security
Projects that impact the well-being of mankind; this
includes any adverse effects on the environs by the
design and operation of such engineered works.
GeoScience denotes the interrelated disciplines of:
Geology, Seismology, Hydrology, Geophysics, and
Oceanography. Moreover, Engineering Geology is a
specialization of professional practice that is predo-
minately concerned with Physico-geology, or the
physical processes, features, ¯uids, and geologic
events past and present as they relate to civil, mining,
military, and environmental engineering practice
(Fig. 23).
Acknowledgements
This broad summary paper has been improved and
strengthened by the editing and technical review of Roy
J. Shlemon, and the comments of Frank C. Kresse.
G.A. Kiersch / Engineering Geology 59 (2001) 1±4944
Fig. 23. Golden Gate Bridge. Engineers and geologist inspect the conditions and quality of the serpentine foundation rock at bottom of the
excavation for the south pier, 108 ft below the channel surface, circa 1934 (photo courtesy of Heinrich Ries Collection, Cornell University, in
Kiersch, 1991, p. 148).
Preparation of the text from many earlier reports and
sources has been accomplished and artfully assembled
by Jane L. Hoffmann of Roadrunner Press, Tucson,
Arizona.
Additional References
Forbes, R.J., 1934. Notes on the History of Ancient Roads and their
Construction. North-Holland, Amsterdam.
References
Adams, F.D., 1938. The birth and development of the geological
sciences: Baltimore, Maryland. Williams and Wilkins Col,
506pp.
AEC, 1971. Seismic and geologic siting criteria for nuclear plants,
Washington, DC. Atomic Energy Commission (preliminary),
12pp.
AIME, 1929. Geology and engineering for dams and reservoirs.
American Institute of Mining and Metallurgy Technical
Publication 215, 122pp.
Albee, A.L., Smith, J.L., 1967. Geologic criteria for nuclear power
plant locations. Society of Mining Engineers Transactions 238,
430±434.
Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, 1966. Initial decision in the
matter of Department of Water and Power of the City of Los
Angeles, Malibu Nuclear Plant Unit no. 1, US Atomic Energy
Commission Docket 50-214, 48pp.
Baker, V.R., 1987. Paleo¯ood hydrology and extraordinary ¯ood
events. Journal of Hydrology 96, 79±99.
Baker, V.R., 1989. Magnitude and frequency of paleo¯oods. In:
Bevin, K., Carling, P. (Eds.). Floods: Hydrological, Sedimento-
logical, and Geomorphological Implications. Wiley, New York,
pp. 171±183.
Bates, C.C., Gaskell, T.F., Rice, R.B., 1982. Geophysics in the
affairs of man. Chap. 3, Geophysics at War. Pergamon Press,
New York, pp. 47±78.
Benioff, H., 1965. Testimony in the matter of Department of Water
and Power, City of Los Angeles, Malibu Nuclear Plant, Unit no.
1: [mimeo.] Reports to US Atomic Energy commission, Docket
no. 50-214, 1 July 1965, 6pp.
Betz, F., 1984. Applied geology. In: Finkl, C.W. (Ed.). The
Encyclopedia of Applied Geology. Van Nostrand Reinhold,
New York, pp. 355±358.
Bonilla, M.G., 1960. Landslides in the San Francisco South
Quadrangle, California, US Geological Survey Open-File
Report.
Bonilla, M.G., 1991. Faulting and seismic activity. In: Kiersch,
G.A. (Ed.). The Heritage of Engineering Geology; The ®rst
Hundred Years: Boulder, Colorado. Centennial Special Volume
3, pp. 253±264.
Borcherdt, R.D. (Ed.), 1975. Studies for Seismic Zonation San
Francisco Bay Region US Geological Survey Professional
Paper, 941-A, pp. A1±A102.
1998. Land subsidence case studies and current research. In: Borchers,
J.W. (Ed.). Proceedings of Dr. Joseph, F., Poland Symposium.
Association for Engineers and Geologists, Special Publication
no. 8, Star Publishing Company, Belmont, CA (576pp.).
Brabb, E.E., 1979. Progress on seismic zonation in San Francisco
Bay region, US Geological Survey Circular 807 (91pp.).
Brabb, E.E., Pampeyan, E.H., Bonilla, M.G., 1972. Landslide
susceptibility in San Mateo County. US Geological Survey
Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-360, scale. 1:62,500,
California, 1972.
Branner, J.C., 1898. Geology and its relation to topography.
Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers 39,
53±95.
Brown, R.D., Kocklman, W.J., 1983. Geologic principles for
prudent land use. A decisionmaker's guide for San Francisco
Bay region, US Geological Survey Professional Paper 946, 97pp.
Bryan, K., 1929. Problems involved in the geologic examination of
dam sites. American Institute of Mining and Metallurgy Technical
Publications 215, class 1, Mining Geology, no. 26, pp. 10±18.
Bryan, K., 1939. Geology and the engineer. Harvard Alumni
Bulletin, 12 May, 3pp.
Burns, S. (Ed.), 1997. Environmental, groundwater, and engineer-
ing geology Ð applications from Oregon Special Publication
no. 11Association for Engineers Geologists (689pp.).
Buwalda, J.P., 1951. Geological report on Broadway tunnel, San
Francisco: Consultants report to City Engineer, San Francisco
(unpublished).
Casagrande, A., 1965. Role of the `calculated risk' in earthwork
and foundation engineering. Journal of Soil Mechanics and
Foundation Division (American Society for Civil Engineers)
91 (4), 1±40.
Clements, T., 1981. Leonardo da Vinci as a geologist. In: Rhodes,
F.H.T., Stone, R.O. (Eds.). Language of the Earth. Pergamon
Press, New York, pp. 310±314.
Code of Federal Regulations, 1977. Title 10, Energy; Part 100 (10
CFR 100), Reactor site criteria. Appendix A, Seismic and
geologic siting criteria for nuclear power plants: Washington,
DC, US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 31pp.
Collier, M., Webb, R.H., Schmidt, 1996. Dams and rivers; a primer
on the downstream effects of dams. US Geological Survey,
Circular 1126, 94pp.
Cooney, J.E., 1952. Compilation-engineering geology of Broadway
tunnel, San Francisco. Consultants report to Morrison-Knudsen
Co., 18pp. (unpublished).
Cozort, D.A., 1981. Boston's Charles River basin. An engineering
landmark. American Society of Engineers Journal of the Boston
Society of Civil Engineers 64 (4), 387.
Davis, J.F., 1979. Technical review of the seismic safety of Auburn
damsite. California Division Mines and Geology, Special
Publication 54, 17.
DeFord, P.V., 1954. Southern Paci®c outlying lands and railroad
rights of way acquired by congressional grant. Southern Paci®c
Corporation Legal Department, 36pp.
Deverel, S.J., Wang, B., Rojstaczer, 1998. Subsidence of organic
soils, Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, California. In: Borchers
(Ed.). Land Subsidence, Case Studies and Current Research.
Star Publishing, Belmont, CA, pp. 489±502.
Drumm, P.L., 1992. Holocene displacement of the central splay of
G.A. Kiersch / Engineering Geology 59 (2001) 1±49 45
the Malibu Coastal Fault Zone, Latigo Canyon, Malibu. In:
Pipkin, B.W., Proctor, R.J. (Eds.). Engineering Geology
Practice in Southern California. Bulletin Association of
Engineering Geologists, Southern California Section, Star
Publications, Belmont, CA, pp. 247±252.
Dutton, C.E., 1889. The Charleston earthquake of 31 August 1886.
US Geological Survey Annual Report 9, pp. 203±528.
ERA, 1952a. Underground explosion test program;.Granite, lime-
stone and sandstone, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Engineering
Research Associates, vol. 1.
ERA, 1952b. Underground explosion test program;.Granite, lime-
stone and sandstone, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Engineering
Research Associates, vol. 2.
Engle, H.M., 1952. Lessons from the San Francisco earthquake of
18 April 1906 in Earthquake and blast effects on structures.
Earthquake Engineering Institute and University of California
at Berkeley, pp. 181±185.
Faul, H., Faul, C., 1983. It began with a stone. History of Geology
from Stone Age to Age of Plate Tectonics. Wiley, New York
(230pp.).
Ferrill, D.A., Wittmeyer, G., Sims, D., Colton, S., Armstrong, A.,
Morris, A.R., 1999. Stressed rock strains groundwater at Yucca
Mountain, Nevada. GSA Today 9 (5), 1±2.
Forbes, H., 1945. Report of diamond drill exploration, Broadway
between Mason and Larkin Streets. Report to City Engineer,
San Francisco (unpublished).
Forbes, H., 1951. Interpretation of ground conditions Broadway
tunnel, San Francisco, 8 February 1951 (unpublished).
Freeman, J.R., 1981. (Report of committee on Charles River Dam
and the formation of Boston Harbor: Report of Chief Engineer
Freeman, pp. 38±109. Appendix 7. Report of W.O. Crosby,
geologist, On Geology of Charles River Estuary and Formation
of Boston Harbor, pp. 345±369, in Cozart, D.A., Boston's
Charles River basin, American Society of Civil Engineers).
Journal of Boston Society of Civil Engineers 64 (4), 1±109.
Galster, R.W., ch, 1989. Engineering Geology in Washington:
Washington State Section. Association of Engineers and
Geologists, published by Washington Division of Geology and
Earth Resources, as Bull. 78, available from DGER, MS PY-12,
Olympia WA 98504, vol. 1, 632pp.; vol. 2 pp. 633±1234.
Gardner, W.E. et al., 1957. Central Valley project American River
Division, Auburn unit, Auburn dam site. Engineering Geology,
US Bureau of Reclamation, California, 28pp., plates.
Gautier, H., 1721. Nouvelles conjectures sur le globe de la terre, Paris.
Gilbert, G.K., 1884. A theory of the earthquakes of the Great Basin
with a practical application. American Journal Science 27, 49±
53 (3rd series).
Gilbert, G.K., 1909. Earthquake forecasts. Science 29 (734), 121±136.
Gilbert, G.K., 1914. The transportation of debris by running water.
US Geological Survey Professional Paper 86, 263pp.
Gilbert, G.K., 1917. Hydraulic-mining debris in the Sierra Nevada.
US Geological Survey Professional Paper 105, 154pp.
Gilbert, G.K., Humphrey, R.L., Sewell, J.S., Soule, F., 1907. The
San Francisco earthquake and ®re of 18 April 18 1906, and their
effects on structures and structural materials. US Geological
Survey Bulletin 324, 170.
Goodman, R.E., 1999. Karl Terzaghi Ð The Engineer as Artist.
American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Press, Reston,
Virginia (327pp.).
Green, J., 1962. Geology of the lunar base, Los Angeles, California,
North American Aviation Co. Space and Information Division
Report SID 68-58, 127pp.
Hall Jr, C.A., 1958. Geology and paleontology of the Pleasanton
area, Alameda and Contra Costa countries, California: Berkeley,
University of California. Publications in Geological Science 34
(1), 1±89.
Hall, J., 1839. Classi®cation of excavation rock, Erie Canal Lock at
Lockport. Third Annual Report of Fourth Geological District,
New York Geological Survey, State of New York, p. 287±339.
Hatheway, A.W., McClure, C.R. (Eds.), 1979. Geology in the siting
of nuclear power plants. Geological Society of America
Reviews in Engineering Geology 4, 425.
Henderson, L.H., 1939. Detailed geological mapping and fault
studies of the San Jacinto tunnel line and vicinity. Journal of
Geology 47 (3), 314±324.
Herd, D.G., 1977. Geologic map of the Las Positas. Greenville, and
Verona faults, eastern Alameda County, California. US
Geological Survey Open-File Report 77-689, 25pp., map
scale. 1: 24,000.
Henry, R.S., 1945. The railroad land grant legend in American
history texts. Mississippi Valley Review 32 (2), 171±194.
Hoskins, E.G., Grif®ths, J.R., 1971. Hydrocarbon potential of
northern and central California offshore. In: Cram, I.H. (Ed.).
Future petroleum provinces of the United States. Their geology
and potential. American Association of Petroleum Geologists
Memoir 15, vol. 1, pp. 212±228.
Huntting, M.T., 1945. Geology in highway engineering. Transac-
tions of the American Society of Civil Engineers 110, 271±344.
Irwin, W.H., 1938. Geology of Rock Foundation of Grand Coulee
Dam, vol. 49. Geological Society of America Bulletin,
Washington (pp. 1627±1650).
James, L.B., 1968. Failure of the Baldwin Hills reservoir, Los
Angeles, California. In: Kiersch, G.A. (Ed.). Engineering
Geology Case Histories No. 6. Geological Society of America
Engineering Geology Case Histories 6±10, pp. 1±12.
James, L.B., et al., 1991. Failures of engineered works. In:
Kiersch, et al. (Eds.). Heritage of Engineering Geology.
Geological Society of America, Centennial Special Volume 3,
pp. 481±516.
James, L.B., Kiersch, G.A., 1988. Geology and reservoirs. In:
Jansen, R.B. (Ed.). Advanced Dam Engineering for Design,
Construction, and Rehabilitation. Van Nostrand Reinhold,
New York, pp. 722±748.
Jansen, R.B. (Ed.), 1988. Advanced Dam Engineering for Design,
Construction, and Rehabilitation New York, Van Nostrand
Reinhold (797pp.).
Jennings, C.W., 1969. Geologic Atlas and Map of California. Olaf
P. Jenkins edition 1958±1969. California Division of Mines and
Geology, scale 1:250,000.
Kachadoorian, R., 1956. Engineering Geology of the Warford Mesa
Subdivision, Orinda, California. US Geological Survey Open-
File Report, 13pp., scale 1:2,400.
Kelly, R., 1989. Battling the Inland Sea. Floods, Public Policy, and
G.A. Kiersch / Engineering Geology 59 (2001) 1±4946
the Sacramento Valley. University of California Press, Berkeley
(395pp.).
Kiersch, G.A., 1949. Underground space for American industry.
Mining Engineering 1 (6), 20±25.
Kiersch, G.A., 1951. Engineering geology principles of subterra-
nean installations. Economic Geology 46 (2), 208±222.
Kiersch, G.A., 1955. Engineering geology: Golden. Colorado
School of Mines Quarterly 50 (3), 123.
Kiersch, G.A., Treasher, R.C., 1955. Investigations, areal and engi-
neering geology Ð Folsom Dam project, Central California.
Economic Geology 50 (3), 271±310.
Kiersch, G.A., 1958. Regional mapping program of Southern
Paci®c Company. Geological Society of America Bulletin 69,
1691.
Kiersch, G.A., 1959. Handbook for geologists, engineers, and
draftsmen. California, Southern Paci®c Company Land
Development, San Francisco, 174pp.
Kiersch, G.A., 1962. Regional/areal geologic investigations in high-
way geology in. In: Scott, L.W. (Ed.). Proceedings, 13th Annual
Highway Geology Symposium. Arizona Highway Department,
Phoenix, pp. 121±160.
Kiersch, G.A., 1964. Vaiont reservoir disaster. Civil Engineering 34
(3), 32±39.
Kiersch, G.A., 1969. Pfeiffer versus General Insurance Corporation.
Landslide damage to insured dwelling, Orinda, California, and
relevant cases. In: Kiersch, G.A., Cleaves, A.B. (Eds.). Legal
Aspects of Geology in Engineering Practices. Geological
Society of America Engineering Geology Case Histories 7,
pp. 81±85.
Kiersch, G.A., 1988. Vaiont reservoir disaster. In: Jansen, R.B.
(Ed.). Advanced Dam Engineering. Van Nostrand Reinhold,
New York, pp. 41±53 (see p. 59 also).
Kiersch, G.A., 1991. The heritage of engineering geology.
First Hundred Years, 1888±1988, Boulder, Colorado. Geologi-
cal Society of America, Centennial Special Volume 3, 605pp.
Kiersch, G.A., 1998. Engineering GeoSciences and Military
operations, vol. 49. Elsevier, Amsterdam (pp. 123±176).
King, C., 1880. First Annual Report of the United States Geological
Survey, 79pp.
Kinzer, S., 1999. Kurds Seek Land, Turks Want the Water. New
York Times, The World, 28 February 1999, p. W-3.
Laird, R.T. et al., 1979. Quantitative land-capability analysis.
Selected examples from San Francisco Bay region, California:
US Geological Survey Professional Paper 945, 115pp.
Lawroski, S., 1978. Letter report from Chairman, Advisory
Committee on Reactor Safeguards to J.M. Hendrie, Chairman,
US Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Diablo Canyon Nuclear
Power Station Units 1 and 2, 7pp. (on ®le at Public Documents
Room, US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 1717 H Street NW,
Washington, DC).
Lawson, A.C., 1908. The San Francisco earthquake of 18 April 18
1906. Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication 87, vol. 1,
pp. 255±451.
Lawson, A.C., 1914. San Francisco folio. US Geological Survey
Geologic Atlas 193, 24pp., 15 maps.
Lindgren, W., 1894. Sacramento, California, folio: US Geological
Survey Geologic Atlas, 5, 3pp., 4 maps.
Little, A.D., 1975. An Evaluation of the San Francisco Bay
Region Environmental and Resources Planning Study. US
Department of Housing and Urban Development Of®ce of
Policy Development and Research, 93pp.
Lutgens, H., Maxwell, T., Kessling, F.V., 1934. Investigation of
criticism of foundation. Golden Gate Bridge by Bailey Willis:
Golden Gate Bridge and Highway District Report of the
Building Committee, 27 November 1934.
Mann Jr., J.F., 1969. Groundwater management in the Raymond
Basin, California. In: Kiersch, G.A., Cleaves, A.B. (Eds.), Legal
Aspects of Geology in Engineering Practice, Geological Society of
America Engineering Geology Case Histories 7, pp. 61±74.
Marblehead Land Company, 1966. Brief of Intervenor, Marblehead
Land Company, in Support of Findings of Fact and Conclusions
of Law. US Atomic Energy Commission Docket no. 50-214,
152pp.
Marliave, C., 1951. Geological report on Broadway tunnel, San
Francisco. Consultant's report to Morrison-Knudsen Co., 19
February 1951, 8pp. (unpublished).
Mather, W.W., Whittlesey, C., 1838. Geologic section and
description of lake front at Cleveland. First Annual Report on
the geological survey, Geological Survey of Ohio, 38pp.
McAfee, L.T., 1934. How the Hetch Hetchy aqueduct was planned
and built. Engineering News Record 133 (5), 134±141.
McClure, C.R., Hatheway, A.W., 1979. An overview of nuclear
power plant siting and licensing. In: Hatheway, A.W., McClure,
C.R. (Eds.). Geology in the Siting of Nuclear Plants. Geological
Society of America Reviews in Engineering Geology, vol. 4. ,
pp. 3±12.
McConnel, D., Mielenz, R.C., Holland, W.Y., Greene, K.T., 1950.
Petrology of concrete affected by cement-aggregate reaction. In:
Paige, S. (Ed.). Application of Geology to Engineering Practice.
Geological Society America, Berkey Volume, Boulder,
Colorado (327pp.).
McGill, J., 1964. The Growing Importance of Urban Geology. US
Geological Survey Circular 487, 4pp.
McGill, J., 1968. Geologic maps of the Paci®c Palisades Area, Los
Angeles, California: US Geol. Survey Map I Ð 1828, with
associated text on complex geology of geologic setting and
the numerous landslides (Inactive, Potentially Active, Active).
McNeilan, T.W. et al., 1998. Site investigations and earthquake
response analysis San Francisco Ð Oakland Bay Bridge east
span replacement. XIIth European Conference on Geotechnical
Engineering, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Mead, W.J., 1930. Application of the strain ellipsoid (geological).
American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin 14,
234±239.
Mount, J.F., 1995. California Rivers and Streams, the Con¯ict
between Fluvial Process and Land Use. University of California
Press, Berkeley (359pp.).
Neal, J., 1997. Swords into plowshares, military geology and
national security projects. In: Underwood, J.R., Guth, P.L.
(Eds.). Military Geology in War and Peace. Reviews in
Engineering Geology v. XIII, Boulder, Colorado Geological
Society of America (chap. 10).
Neumann, F., 1952. Some generalized concepts of earthquake
motion. Earthquakes and Blast Effects on Structures.
G.A. Kiersch / Engineering Geology 59 (2001) 1±49 47
Earthquake Engineering Research Institute and University of
California at Berkeley, p. B-19.
Nickell, F.N., 1942. Development and use of engineering geology.
American Association of Petroleum Geologists 26, 1797±1826.
Novick, S., 1969. The Careless Atom. Houghton-Mif̄ in, Boston
(225pp.).
Oakschott, G.B., 1985. Contributions of the state geological surveys:
California as a case history. In: Drake, E.T., Jordan, W.M. (Eds.).
Geologists and Ideas. Geological Society of American Centennial
Special Volume 1, Boulder, Colorado, pp. 323±335.
O'Sullivan, J.J. (Ed.), 1961. Protective Construction in a Nuclear
Age, 2 vols. Macmillan, New York (836pp.).
Page, B.M., 1950. Broadway tunnel, Berkeley Hills. Economic
Geology 45, 142±166.
Paige, S., 1950. Application of Geology to Engineering Practice.
Geological Society of American Berkey Volume, 327pp.
Pearson, J.C., Loughlin, C.F., 1923. An interesting case of
dangerous aggregate. American Concrete Institute Proceedings,
vol. 19, pp. 142±155.
Piper, C.F., 1981. Letter from news bureau representative Paci®c
Gas and Electric Company. San Jose Mercury News. 31 October
1981, p. 11B.
Pipkin, B.W., Proctor, R.J. (Eds.), 1992. Engineering Geology
Practice in Southern California. Society for the California
Association of Engineers and Geologists, Special Publication
no. 4, 769pp. (Available from Star Publications, P.O. Box 68,
Belmont, CA 94002, USA).
Plafker, G., Galloway, J.P., 1989. Lessons learned from the Loma
Prieta. California, Earthquake of 17 October 1989, US
Geological Survey Circular 1045, 48pp.
Proctor, R.W., 1999. Geologic aspects of tunnel construction in
California Ð a historical perspective. AEG News 42 (2).
Radbruch-Hall, D., 1957. Areal and engineering geology of Oakland
West Quadrangle. US Geological Survey Miscellaneous
Investigations Map I-239, scale 1:24, 000, California.
Radbruch-Hall, D., 1969. Areal and engineering geology of the
Oakland East Quadrangle. US Geological Survey Quadrangle
Map GQ-769, scale 1:24,000, California, 15 p.
Radbruch-Hall, D., 1987. The role of engineering. Geologic factors
in the early settlement and expansions of the conterminous
United States. Paris International Association of Engineering
Geology, no. 35, pp. 9±30.
Reid, H.F., 1911. The elastic-rebound theory of earthquakes.
University of California at Berkeley Department of Geology
Bulletin 6, 413.
Rice, S., Stephens, E., Real, C., 1979. Geologic evaluation of the
General Electric test reactor site. Vallecites, Alameda County,
California. California Division of Mines and Geology Special
Publication 56, 19pp.
Richter, R.C., 1966. California earthquake investigations. A review:
geological society of America engineering geology division.
The Engineering Geologist Newsletter 1 (3), 1±5.
Ries, H., Watson, T.L., 1914. Engineering Geology. 5th ed. Wiley,
New York (pp. 679±750).
Russell, R.D., 1950. Applications of sedimentation to naval
problems. In: Trask, P.D. (Ed.). Applied Sedimentation.
Wiley, New York, pp. 656±665.
Rzonca, G.F., Spellman, H.A., Fall, G.W., Shlemon, R.J., 1991.
Holocene displacement of the Malibu Coast Fault Zone, Winter
Mesa, Malibu, Calif. Engineering geologic implications.
Bulletin Association of Engineering Geologists XXVII,
147±158.
Schlocker, J., Bonilla, M.G., 1964. Engineering geology of the
proposed nuclear power plant site on Bodega Head, Sonoma
County. US Geological Survey Investigations Report for US
Atomic Energy Commission, California, 31pp.
Schlocker, J., 1974. Geology of the San Francisco North
Quadrangle. US Geological Survey Professional Paper 782,
California, 109pp.
Sherburne, R.W., Hauge, C.J. (Eds.), 1975. Oroville, California,
earthquake, 1 August 1975. California Division of Mines and
Geology Special Report 124, 151pp.
Shlemon, R.J., 1985. Application of soil-stratigraphy techniques in
engineering geology. Association of Engineering Geologists
Bulletin 22 (2), 129±142.
Shlemon, R.J., 1999. The hazard of (using) geologic hazards to
geology (practice); a discussion: the professional geologist.
American Institute of Professional Geologists 36 (4), 9±10.
Shlemon, R.J., Slossan, J.E., Slossan, T.L., 1992. Modulation of
engineering geology standard of practice 1928±1992. In:
Stout, M.L. (Ed)., Proceedings of the 35th Annual Meeting,
Association of Engineering Geologists, Long Beach, CA,
pp. 428±434.
Shrock, R.R., 1977. History of the First Hundred Years of Geology
at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, vol. 1. Faculty:
Cambridge, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press,
William Otis Crosby, p. 271±300; Warren J. Mead, pp. 679±696.
Strauss, J.B., 1938. The Golden Gate Bridge. Report of Chief
Engineer to Board of Directors. Golden Gate Bridge and
Highway District, September 1937, 246pp.
Taylor, C.L., Conwell, F.R., 1981. BART; In¯uence of geology on
construction conditions and costs. Association of Engineering
Geologists Bulletin 28 (2), 195±205.
Terzaghi, K., 1955. In¯uence of geological factors on the engineering
properties of sediments. In: Bateman, A.M. (Ed.). Economic Geol-
ogy 50th Anniversary Volume. Economic Geology Publishing,
Lancaster, Pennsylvania, pp. 557±618 (part 2).
Terzaghi, K., 1963. Karl Terzaghi's last writing on soils.
Engineering News Record 171 (21), 1±2.
Thompson, T.F., 1966. San Jacinto tunnel. In: Lung, R., Proctor, R.
(Eds.), Engineering Geology in Southern California. Association
EngineeringGeologists, Los Angeles Section, Special Publication,
pp. 104±107.
Trask, P.D., 1950. Applied Sedimentation. Wiley, New York
(665pp.).
Turner, A.K., Schuster, R.L. (Eds.), 1996. Landslides Ð Investiga-
tions and Mitigation. US Transportation Research Board,
National Research Council, Special Report 247, 672pp.
Twenhofel, W.H. (Ed.), 1932. Treatise on Sedimentation.
Baltimore, Maryland, Williams and Wilkins, 626pp.
Twenhofel, W.H., 1939. Principles of Sedimentation. McGraw-Hill,
New York (707pp.).
Underwood, J.R., 1964. Edwin Theodore Dumble. Southwestern
Historical Quarterly 68 (1), 53±78.
G.A. Kiersch / Engineering Geology 59 (2001) 1±4948
US Atomic Energy Commission, 1962. Reactor site criteria: Code
of Federal Regulations, Title 10, Part 100, Chapter 1, Section
100.10.
US Atomic Energy Commission, 1964. Public announcement dated
27 October 1964, including letter from Advisory Committee on
Reactor Safeguards dated 20 October 20, 1964 (4pp.), and
Summary analysis for Docket no. 50-205 by the Division of
Reactor Licensing dated 26 October 1964, 14pp.
US Atomic Energy Commission, 1967. Decision in the matter of
Department of Water and Power of City of Los Angeles Malibu
Nuclear Plant Unit no. 1, Docket no. 50-214, 17pp.
US Bureau of Reclamation, 1950. Boulder Canyon project ®nal
reports, geological investigations. US Bureau Reclamation,
part 3, Bull. 1, Gov't Print Of®ce, Washington, DC, 231pp.
US Bureau of Reclamation, 1977. Auburn Dam, seismic evaluation
of Auburn dam site. Project Geology Report: Auburn-Folsom
South Unit, Central Valley Project Construction Of®ce, Auburn,
CA, 3 volumes, variously paginated, appendices, plates.
US Bureau of Reclamation, 1978. Auburn Dam, seismic evaluation
of Auburn dam site. Project Geology Report: Auburn-Folsom
South Unit, Central Valley Project Construction Of®ce, Auburn,
CA., 6 volumes.
US COLD, 1999. Dealing with aging dams. US Committee Large
Dams Annual Lecture, Committee on Hydraulics, Safety, and
Construction and Rehabilitation of Dams, USCOLD 1616
Seventeenth St., Suite 483, Denver, Colorado, 38 contributors,
557pp.
US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 1977. Seismic and geologic
siting criteria for nuclear power plants. Code of Federal
Regulations, Title 10, Part 100, Appendix A.
USCE, 1961. Design of underground installations in rock. US Corps
of Engineers EM1110-345-431, 68 p.
Wadsworth, R.G., 1953. San Francisco's broadway tunnel
completed. Civil Engineering 23, 53±57.
Wagner, H.C., 1974. Marine geology between Cape San Martin and
Point Sal, south-central California offshore. US Geological
Survey Open-File Report 74-252, 17pp.
Wallace, R.E., 1980. Gilbert's studies of faults, scarps, and
earthquakes. In: Yochelson, E.L. (Ed.), The Scienti®c Ideas of
G.K. Gilbert. Geological Society of America Special Paper 183,
pp. 35±44.
Wallace, R.E., 1986. Active Tectonics. Studies in Geophysics.
National Research Council Panel on Active Tectonics. National
Academy Press, Washington, DC (260pp.).
Webb, B., Wilson, R.V. 1962. Progress Geologic Map of Nevada.
Nevada Bureau of Mines, Map 16, scale 1:500,000.
Willis, B., 1934. Is the Golden Gate Bridge a $35,000,000
Experiment? The Argonaut, 19 October 1934, pp. 2±4.
Wilson, R.R., Mayeda, H.S., 1966. Los Angeles to Owens River
Aqueducts. In: Lung, R., Procter, R. (Eds.), Engineering
Geology in Southern California, Association Engineering
Geologists, Los Angeles Section, Special Publication,
pp. 63±71.
Woodward-Clyde Consultants, 1977. Earthquake evaluation studies
of Auburn Dam area: Consultant's Report for US Bureau
Reclamation, Sacramento, CA. 8 volumes, variously paginated,
appendices, plates.
World Press, 1997. Dammed if you do. World Press 44 (8), 6±11.
Yerkes, R.F., Wentworth, C.M., 1965. Structure, Quaternary history,
and general geology of the Corral Canyon area, Los Angeles
County. US Geological Survey report prepared for US Atomic
Energy Commission, California, 215pp., 4 appendixes.
Yochelson, E.L. (Ed.), 1984. The scienti®c ideas of G.K. Gilbert.
Geological Society of America Special Paper 183, 148pp.
G.A. Kiersch / Engineering Geology 59 (2001) 1±49 49