The abandoned Pb-Zn mine of Ingurtosu, Sardinia (Italy)

The Ingurtosu Pb-Zn mine, situated in the southwestern part of Sardinia, has been in production from the beginning of the last century up to 1968. The orebody consists of galena/sphalerite/barite/siderite veins in Ordovician arenaceous and phyllitic sediments, near the contact with a Hercynian batholith.

Abundant tailings were collected in a pond from which they were discharged during the winter months into the sea via the Rio Naracauli stream. Today this area of outstanding scenic beauty, is degraded by tailings and waste rock scattered all along the stream.

Material derived from mining activities was studied for grain size, mineralogical and geochemical composition. The Rio Naracauli was sampled over a length of ten kilometers at regular intervals.

The results can be summarized as follows: (a) tailings contain a varying, but often quite high, percentage of Pb; lower percentages were found for Zn and Cd; (b) a sharp increase in dissolved Zn, Cd and Pb was observed in the Rio Naracauli where it leached the tailings; and (c) tailings and waste rocks should be recycled or revegetated.     

A novel insight into vertical ground motion modelling in earthquake engineering

Recent observations of failure and damage of buildings and structures under seismic action has led to an increasing interest for an in-depth analysis of the vertical component of site ground motion. In particular, when dealing with saturated soils, the current engineering practice does not usually go beyond the simplified $u$–$p$ formulation of the Biot's equations describing the coupled hydro-mechanical behaviour, thus neglecting some terms of fluid inertial forces, despite the presence of more refined formulations, for example, the $u$–$U$ formulation. Therefore, a theoretical and numerical validation of the $u$–$p$ formulation as compared with the $u$–$U$ formulation is proposed in this work, where the numerical simulations are compared with the analytical solution for the $u$–$p$ formulation, which is also derived and illustrated in this text. The comparison between the two formulations and the analytical solution is provided for different levels of permeability and dynamic actions, which are representative of a wide scenario of site ground properties and seismic hazard in the vertical direction. In particular, the soil response is analysed in terms of acceleration and pore pressure time history, frequency content, acceleration response spectrum, and amplification ratio of acceleration. This study extends the discussion of the limits of applicability of the $u$–$p$ formulation with respect to the rigorous solution of Biot's equations (obtained here with $u$–$U$ formulation) to the context of a complex dynamic regime provided by the vertical components of real earthquake records, and paves the way for further investigations.     

Liquefaction triggering in silty sands: effects of non-plastic fines and mixture-packing conditions

Acta Geotechnica - During recent seismic events, such as 2010 Darfield and 2016 Ecuador earthquakes, widespread liquefaction has been observed in sand deposits with silt content. Nevertheless, the...