ABSTRACT
A study of 471 consolidation tests from the marine environment compared the results of five methods that determine the preconsolidation pressure(Pc'), i.e., the maximum past effective pressure exerted on the sediment at a specific depth. The goals of many marine geotechnical analyses are to understand the mechanical behavior of sediments and their present and past stress-strain conditions. This chapter assumes that the Casagrande Pc'-method produces a valid value for marine sediments. It discusses a geotechnical and consolidation data generated by private contracts to Texas A&M University. Most of the data were for marine sediments primarily from the Mississippi Delta in the Gulf of Mexico and the Nares Abyssal Plain in the North Atlantic. Fine-grained marine sediments are sediments of terrigenous and/or pelagic origin that were deposited in the marine environment and have greater than 50% silt size or smaller particles.
