"bull's liver" manhattan silt

[mudman54]

has anyone run across a good case history describing the problems with the sensitive manhattan silt? stories i've always heard is that the sandhogs would lean up against it in a tunnel and it would liquefy. but i've never seen much published about it.

 

[PEinc]

Bull's Liver is not limited to Manhattan. It is a relatively fine-grained, low permeability, silty soil that will not drain water easily. Dewatering is very difficult when using common dewatering methods. Therefore, the water flows and takes the soil along with it. I've encountered it in Philadelphia.

 

[escrowe]

I believe bull's liver is a type of rock flour created by grinding glaciers.
When saturated, it has been reported to 'quake like jelly and flow like a liquid' when vibrated.

Introductory Soil Mechanics and Foundations{/I], Sowers and Sowers, 1970.

 

[BigHarvey]

Terzaghi and Peck "Soil Mechanics in Engineering practice"2nd edition : There is a description similar to what escrowe wrote