School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Ph.D. Thesis Defense Announcement
LIQUEFACTION RESPONSE OF MINE TAILINGS AND NATURAL SOILS: NOVEL EXPERIMENTAL INSIGHTS AND CASE HISTORIES
By Cody Arnold
Advisor:
Dr. Jorge Macedo (CEE)
Committee Members: Dr. David Frost (CEE), Dr. Paul Mayne (CEE), Dr. Diane Moug (CEE, PSU), Dr. Fikret Atalay (EGSci, Inc.), Dr. Alexander Robel (EAS)
Date and Time: April 17th, 2025, at 11:00 am EST
Location: SEB 122 or https://gatech.zoom.us/j/92878288709

Cyclic liquefaction is the leading cause of earthquake-related damage worldwide. The 2023 Kahramanmaraş earthquake sequence in Türkiye resulted in an estimated $34.2 billion in damages and over 50,000 fatalities. Cyclic liquefaction is also the leading cause of tailings storage facility (TSF) failures in Chile, a leading global producer of copper and lithium. Meanwhile, static liquefaction is a major contributor to TSF failures worldwide and has played a significant role in some of the most recent high-profile failures in Brazil and Canada. Whether static or cyclic, liquefaction presents a significant challenge for geotechnical engineers and poses risks to the long-term sustainability of infrastructure and the environment. Designing more resilient systems against liquefaction requires a better understanding of its underlying mechanisms. This thesis contributes to that understanding by presenting (1) the first comprehensive experimental dataset on the cyclic liquefaction behavior of mine tailings, with salient insights into their unique mechanical response; (2) the implementation of a plane-strain device and its application to get insights on the mechanical response of mine tailings; and (3) high-quality field case histories from the 2023 Kahramanmaraş earthquake sequence.