Special Issue on Bam EarthquakeVolume 5: No. 4 (Winter 2004) – Volume 6: No. 1 (Spring 2004)

Geotechnical Instabilities Occurred During the Bam Earthquake of 26 December 2003
K. Amini Hosseini, M.R. Mahdavifar, M. Keshavarz Bakhshaiesh

This paper describes the geotechnical instabilities such as landslide, liquefaction, and ground subsidence caused by the Bam earthquake. Based on the results of geotechnical investigations, after the Bam earthquake, land subsidence due to collapse of Qanats (underground irrigation tunnels), local toppling, and block slides along riverbanks or man-made channels were the most dominant geotechnical instabilities of the event. These effects will be introduced and discussed in this paper and the distribution of them will be presented based on the study of aerial photos and site investigations. In addition, the geological setting of the area based on field investigations and evaluation of some geophysical data will be discussed.