Geological Engineering Studies of Marine Sediments, Northwestern Persian Gulf

Having knowledge about geological and engineering properties of marine sediments, is very important to perform stability analysis of offshore structures. In this paper, the geological engineering characteristics of marine sediments (from seabed to a maximum depth about 30 meters below seabed) was investigated in three oil and gas fields located in the northwestern Persian Gulf. In the first step, geotechnical database of study area was developed based on studies carried out by marine geotechnical labs and oil companies in Persian Gulf. Then, the distribution of physical and mechanical properties of marine sediments with depth and also their relation to the other parameters were studied and some graphs and geological/geotechnical profiles were drawn.The results showed that the physical and mechanical characteristics of these sites are influenced by the distance from the Iranian coast, water depth and distance from Arvand Rud river delta. Generally, from siteI to siteIII, the grains size, and liquid limit of fine-grained and strength of subseafloor sediments were increased. The thickness of soft sediments was decreased from siteI to siteIII. By evaluating the percent of carbonate content, it was found that with distance from the coast, the percent of carbonate content in subseafloor sediments were decreased. So, the least amount of carbonate content was observed in site III. According to the result of PI versus PL/LL graph, Illite is the most abundant clay mineral in the study area.