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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database

Houston Geological Society

Abstract


Houston Area Environmental Geology: Surface Faulting, Ground Subsidence, Hazard Liability, 1981
Pages 1-12

Land Development and Fault Investigations in the Houston, Texas Area

DeWitt C. Van Siclen

Abstract

When a developer learns that a geologic fault crosses his property, his reaction generally depends on whether he is siting industrial buildings or developing residential lots. The builders usually worry a lot, want exact locations, and try to plan around the faulting. But the reactions of lot developers have a very wide range, depending on the degree to which their flexibility for replanning is limited by prior commitments for financing, major thoroughfares and drainages, etc.. While the presence of faults frequently delays development of a tract, the rising value of well-located land is leading increasingly to the development of more faulted tracts by both unknowing(?) and highly knowledgeable parties. Also, a few large (but low) buildings have been designed and constructed intentionally over fairly active faults; one built about ten years ago experianced such severe problems that it was recently torn down. And many more buildings, including hundreds of residences, have been built over faults more or less unknowingly.

Once a developer faces up to the possible presence of faults on his land he needs to consider such questions as their reality, location and extent, and likely rate of movement. The final answers to most of these questions must often come from the subsurface, where they may be learned by drilling a series of boreholes a few hundred feet deep. These holes are logged for electrical spontaneous potential, and for resistivity using a single-electrode system to obtain maximum bed resolution and character. Airphotos, one-foot contour interval topographic maps, and field inspection are useful guides in locating the boreholes for maximum efficiency; and the subsurface information from the boreholes enhances the accuracy of these surficial methods.


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