Long-Term Settlement of Diluvial Clays and Existing Pellets in Seabed

Abstract

The fecal pellets in marine clay layers and their appearance are introduced. They have the role for the cementation of diluvial clay layers in seabed. The void ratio of these layers has been kept too large instead of their high shearing strength. Recently, examples of large settlement of diluvial clay layers due to the reclamation in off-shore projects have been observed. In this paper, it is shown that the large void ratio due to the cementation effect by pellets is one of the main causes for the delayed compression of diluvial clay layers.