Wildlife Refuge Liquefaction Field Site
Location and Characteristics
The liquefaction field site has been thoroughly
characterized through geotechnical borehole
samples, as was a nearby site that was previously
studied by the USGS.
Click to enlarge
Located in California's Imperial Valley the Wildlife Liquefaction Array (WLA) field site records numerous earthquakes daily in this seismically active area at the southern most terminus of the San Andreas Fault system.
WLA is located on the west bank of the Alamo River 13 km due north of Brawley, California and 160 km due east of San Diego. This area has been frequently shaken by earthquakes with six events in the past 75 years generating liquefaction effects within 10 km of the WLA site. Records from field sites during actual earthquake shaking provide essential information to scientists who study the effects of earthquakes. In particular, predicting the ground response, ground failure, and liquefaction effects from earthquakes using computer models requires instrumented field sites to validate the simulation methods against real observations.
Researchers are using earthquakes that occur on a daily basis near this site, as well as active testing using mobile shakers to try and better understand how the near-surface geologic conditions affect the ground shaking at this site.
More Information
Data Channels
Wildlife Field Site Construction Photographs
Facility and Equipment Technical Details
Interactive Map
