ABSTRACT 



Thirty-five gravity- and piston-type cores were collected by the 

 Hydrographic Office in depths of 400 to 5120 m from 8 different 

 areas in the North Atlantic, Central Pacific, and West Mediterranean 

 Sea. Most cores were composed of terrigenous silt- and clay-size 

 particles. Mass physical property laboratory measurements of 

 more than 700 samples included: grain size, specific gravity of 

 solids, wet unit weight, water content, void ratio, pore-water satu- 

 ration, liquid and plastic limits, and compressive and/or vane shear 

 strength. Also computed were porosity, liquidity index, plastic 

 index, cohesion, sensitivity, activity, and modulus of elasticity. 



Depth in cores generally was found to be directly related to wet unit 

 weight and cohesion, inversely related to measures of water con- 

 tent, and a variable relation to median diameter, sand- and clay- 

 size fraction, and plasticity index. Specific gravity of solids ranged 

 from 2.68 to 2.89, without correction for salt content, and showed 

 a tendency to be directly related to wet unit weight and inversely 

 related to porosity. Wet unit weight ranged from 1.23 to 1.86 g/cm 3 

 and was inversely related to porosity. All samples, except one, were 

 effectively 100 percent saturated. Water content ranged from 37 

 to 237 percent dry weight, corresponding to porosities of 51 to 86 

 percent. Surface porosities averaged by area ranged from 72 to 

 86 percent. Straight-line relationships between porosity and clay- 

 size fraction and also the logarithm of cohesion are related to 

 relative rates of deposition in the different areas. Liquid limit 

 ranged from 25 to 109 percent and plastic limit from 15 to 46 

 percent, with most values between, respectively, 50 to 80 percent 

 and 20 to 30 percent. Most samples were highly plastic; extremes 

 of plasticity index were 1.6 and 81. In surface sediments, water 

 content always was greater than liquid limit. Liquidity indices 

 commonly were about 200 percent, with a few values greater than 

 1,200 percent. Cohesion ranged from 4.2 to 234 g/cm 2 in "undis- 

 turbed" samples. The mean of surface cohesion measurements 

 in predominantly terrigenous sediments was about 20 g/cm 2 , and 

 in calcareous sediments about 40 g/cm 2 . Sensitivities of 1.6 to 

 26 are reported. Porosity appeared directly related to sensitivity. 

 Activity ranged from 0.06 to 1.7 with most values between 0.25 and 

 1.25. Moduli of elasticity, computed from compressive strength 

 test measurements, ranged from to 870 g/cm 2 . 



