ABSTRACT: On Seafloor Instability: Mechanics and Analysis

M. S. Rahman

The instability of seafloor sediments constitutes an important consideration in the planning and design of offshore and coastal development. The shear stresses in the sediments induced by gravitational and environmental forces associated with storm waves and earthquakes may cause shear failure leading to seafloor instability. In this presentation mechanics of such failures will be discussed and simple analyses will be presented for their evaluation. These analyses can be used to identify potentially unstable sediments in a given offshore region.