Evaluation of seismic soil-liquefaction at Guwahati city

Great earthquakes in the past (e.g. 1869 Cachar earthquake, 1897 great Assam earthquake) have caused large scale damage and ground liquefaction in the Guwahati city. Moreover, seismologists are of opinion that a great earthquake might occur in the unruptured segment of the North-East Himalaya that is near to Guwahati city. In this paper, the liquefaction hazard due to these events have been simulated. The obtained results are in general agreement with the reported damages due to the past earthquakes. The central part of the city (i.e. Dispur, GS road), that has large thickness of soft soil deposit and shallow ground water table, is highly vulnerable to liquefaction. © 2009 Springer-Verlag.