4.8 Geology, Soils, and Geohazards
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4. Environmental Setting, Impacts, Standard Conditions of Approval, and Mitigation Measures 4.8 Geology, Soils, and Geohazards This section describes geologic and seismic conditions in the project vicinity to provide relevant background information of the physical characteristics of the project site with respect to soils and potential geologic hazards. The following information is compiled from geologic maps and reports available from the City of Oakland, the California Geological Survey (CGS; formerly California Division of Mines and Geology), the ABAG, two geotechnical reports prepared by Geomatrix in 2008, and a third geotechnical report prepared by AMEC Geomatrix in 2009. This section identifies any potentially significant geologic impacts and, if necessary, appropriate mitigation measures or standard conditions of approval. Pursuant to the City’s amendment to the Oakland General Plan (City of Oakland, 2005), as well as Section 15358(b) of the CEQA Guidelines, mitigation measures are proposed only to address physical impacts that may result from the project. 4.8.1 Environmental Setting The project site is situated within the Coast Ranges geomorphic province of California. The Coast Ranges is the largest of the state’s geomorphic provinces extending approximately 400 miles from the Klamath Mountains (near northern Humboldt County) to the Santa Ynez River in Santa Barbara County. The province lies between the Pacific Ocean and the Great Valley (Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys) provinces and is characterized by a series of northwest trending mountain ridges and valleys, running generally parallel to the San Andreas Fault zone. These mountain ridges and valleys have been formed by tectonic forces that compressed ancient sedimentary deposits over the course of millions of years. San Francisco Bay is located in a broad depression in the Franciscan bedrock resulting from an east-west expansion between the San Andreas and the Hayward fault systems. The bedrock surface can be found at elevations of 200 to 2,000 feet below mean sea level across the Bay Area. Sedimentary deposits that overlie the Franciscan bedrock originated from millions of years of erosion, deposition, and changes in sea level. Geologists categorize these sedimentary deposits into geologic formations based on the period of deposition and material type, as described below for the San Francisco Bay region. • The Alameda Formation is the deepest and oldest of these sedimentary deposits and consists of a mixture of clay, silt, sand, gravel, and some shells with predominantly silt and clay sediments surrounding discontinuous layers of sand and gravel; • Overlying the Alameda Formation is the San Antonio Formation, which consists of sandy clays, gravelly clays, clayey sands and gravels with interbedded silty clay deposits. • Younger alluvial deposits once referred to as the Temescal Formation are deposited on top of the San Antonio and consist of sandy clays, clayey sands, sands and gravels. The source material for these alluvial deposits comes from the Berkeley Hills. ABSMC Summit Campus Seismic Upgrade and 4.8-1 ESA / 207376 Master Plan Project Draft EIR December 2009 4. Environmental Setting, Impacts, Standard Conditions of Approval and Mitigation Measures 4.8 Geology, Soils, and Geohazards The geotechnical report conducted for the project site describe the subsurface conditions of the site as thick alluvial sediments (approximately 325 feet thick) overlying Franciscan Complex sedimentary bedrock units (Geomatrix, 2008). The alluvial materials consist primarily of stiff clays interbedded with dense silty sands and gravel lenses (Geomatrix, 2008). Seismicity Seismic hazards include those hazards that could reasonably be expected to occur in the area during a major earthquake on any of the active faults in the region. Some hazards can be more severe than others, depending on the location, underlying materials, and level of ground shaking. The project site, like the entire Bay Area, lies within an area that contains many active and potentially active faults and is considered to be an area of high seismic activity.1 The USGS Working Group on California Earthquake Probabilities evaluated the probability of one or more earthquakes of Richter magnitude 6.7 or higher occurring in the San Francisco Bay Area within the next 30 years (USGS, 2008).2 The result of the evaluation indicated a 63 percent likelihood that such an earthquake event will occur in the Bay Area between 2007 and 2037 (USGS, 2008). Ground movement during an earthquake can vary depending on the overall magnitude, distance to the fault, focus of earthquake energy, and type of geologic material. The composition of underlying soils, even those relatively distant from faults, can intensify ground shaking. For this reason, earthquake intensities are also measured in terms of their observed effects at a given locality. The Modified Mercalli (MM) intensity scale (Table 4.8-1) is commonly used to measure earthquake damage due to ground shaking. The MM values for intensity range from I (earthquake not felt) to XII (damage nearly total), and intensities ranging from IV to X can cause moderate to significant structural damage.3 The intensities of an earthquake will vary over the region of a fault and generally decrease with distance from the epicenter of the earthquake. According to the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) Shaking Intensity Maps and Information, the project site is located in an area subject to “moderate” ground shaking (Modified Mercalli Intensity VI) from earthquakes along the entire San Andreas (similar to the 1906 Earthquake), and “strong” ground shaking (Modified Mercalli Intensity VIII) from the Northern and Southern segments of the Hayward Fault (ABAG, 2009c). 1 An “active” fault is defined by the State of California as a fault that has had surface displacement within Holocene time (approximately the last 11,000 years). A “potentially active” fault is defined as a fault that has shown evidence of surface displacement during the Quaternary (last 1.6 million years), unless direct geologic evidence demonstrates inactivity for all of the Holocene or longer. This definition does not, of course, mean that faults lacking evidence of surface displacement are necessarily inactive. “Sufficiently active” is also used to describe a fault if there is some evidence that Holocene displacement occurred on one or more of its segments or branches (Hart, 1997). 2 Richter magnitude is a measure of the size of an earthquake as recorded by a seismograph. Richter magnitudes vary logarithmically, with each whole number step representing a ten-fold increase in the amplitude of the recorded seismic waves. Earthquake magnitudes are also measured by their Moment Magnitude (Mw) which is related to the physical characteristics of a fault including the rigidity of the rock, the size of fault rupture, and movement or displacement across a fault. 3 The damage level represents the estimated overall damage that will occur for various MM intensity levels. Damage, however, is not uniform, as the age, material, type, method of construction, size, and shape of a building all affect its performance. ABSMC Summit Campus Seismic Upgrade and 4.8-2 ESA / 207376 Master Plan Project Draft EIR December 2009 4. Environmental Setting, Impacts, Standard Conditions of Approval and Mitigation Measures 4.8 Geology, Soils, and Geohazards TABLE 4.8-1 MODIFIED MERCALLI INTENSITY SCALE Average Peak Intensity Acceleration Value Intensity Description (% ga) I Not felt except by a very few persons under especially favorable circumstances. < 0. 17 g II Felt only by a few persons at rest, especially on upper floors on buildings. Delicately 0.17-1.4 g suspended objects may swing. III Felt noticeably indoors, especially on upper floors of buildings, but many people do 0.17-1.4 g not recognize it as an earthquake. Standing motor cars may rock slightly, vibration similar to a passing truck. Duration estimated. IV During the day felt indoors by many, outdoors by few. At night, some awakened. 1.4–3.9g Dishes, windows, doors disturbed; walls make cracking sound. Sensation like heavy truck striking building. Standing motor cars rocked noticeably. V Felt by nearly everyone, many awakened. Some dishes and windows broken; a few 3.5 – 9.2 g instances of cracked plaster; unstable objects overturned. Disturbances of trees, poles may be noticed. Pendulum clocks may stop. VI Felt by all, many frightened and run outdoors. Some heavy furniture moved; and fallen 9.2 – 18 g plaster or damaged chimneys. Damage slight. VII Everybody runs outdoors. Damage negligible in buildings of good design and 18 – 34 g construction; slight to moderate in well-built ordinary structures; considerable in poorly built or badly designed structures; some chimneys broken. Noticed by persons driving motor cars. VIII Damage slight in specially designed structures; considerable in ordinary substantial 34 – 65 g buildings, with partial collapse; great in poorly built structures. Panel walls thrown out of frame structures. Fall of chimneys, factory stacks, columns, monuments, walls. Heavy furniture overturned. Sand and mud ejected in small amounts. Changes in well water. Persons driving motor cars disturbed. IX Damage considerable in specially designed structures; well-designed frame structures 65 – 124 g thrown out of plumb; great in substantial buildings, with partial collapse. Buildings shifted off foundations. Ground cracked conspicuously. Underground pipes broken. X Some well-built