GEOLAB - Transnational Access project QC-CEM - Mapping quick clay with geophysical methods

Quick clay is characterised by complete collapse and liquid-like mobility when overloaded. Quick clay is found primarily in Norway and Sweden, but also exists in Finland, Russia, Canada and Alaska. Quick clay landslides, with their retrogression characteristics and extreme mobility, pose significant risk to human lives, infrastructure, property and surrounding ecosystems. Hence, the proper characterization of quick clay sites is essential for ensuring the safety and resilience of infrastructure in Norway and elsewhere in Europe.
The current practice for mapping quick clay in Norway relies heavily on borehole data with either rotary sounding or total sounding and core samples tested in the laboratory. The only method for identifying quick clay with certainty is physical testing in the laboratory, but it is time-consuming, expensive and gives limited information, i.e., only at the depths and locations where the samples are taken. In Norway, rotary sounding and total soundings are frequently used in mapping of quick clay. There is increasing interest in using geophysical methods such as Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) to supplement the results from soundings, particularly in early stage of ground investigation for mapping of quick clay. ERT is a near surface geophysical method that uses direct current to measure the earth's electrical resistivity. The current is injected into the subsurface through steel electrodes installed 10-20 cm into the ground, and the apparent resistivity distribution along a profile or area is measured. Using data processing and inverse modelling a 2D or 3D resistivity model of the subsurface can be derived.
Geophysical methods such as ERT show capability to identify not quick clay such as sand, silt, dry crust, moraine and bed rock reasonably accurate, but the identification of quick clay is still generally limited. The detection of leached clay (thus potentially quick clay) is however possible.
Transnational Access project QC-CEM is funded through the 1st call for proposal for the GEOLAB project. This project aims at testing various geophysical methods for their capability for soil characterisation, particularly for detecting quick clay.

The objectives of the QC-CEM project are:
(i) to test different configurations of Electrical Resistivity Tomography survey for detection of quick clay
(ii) to test innovative and efficient electromagnetic based methods for mapping of quick clay. Results from this investigation is not available to share at this stage.
(iii) to investigation the effectiveness of cross-interpretation using different geophysical methods for soil characterisation. The results from this activity will be published in open publication after they are processed.