Studies of shear strength and consolidation characteristics of marine sediments were made from the following four major provinces of the Gulf of Mexico: Mississippi fan, Gulf abyssal plain, Texas-Louisiana continental slope, and Mexican continental slope. These studies indicate that the sediments in these regions, to a depth of 10 m below the sediment-water interface, are stable in their present environment.

Shear-strength versus normal-stress plots indicate that minimum average values of o (angle of internal friction) ranges from 11° for the Texas-Louisiana and Mexican continental slope sediments to 10° for the Mississippi fan and abyssal plain sediments. Average values of o ranged from a high of 20° for the Texas-Louisiana continental slope sediments to 16° for Mississippi fan and abyssal plain sediments.

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