Geophysical characterization of liquefaction-prone areas: The Quistello test site, central Po Plain, Northern Italy

A geophysical conceptual model for sites prone to seismic liquefaction is presented, introducing a geophysical protocol to characterize the liquefaction proneness. Three parameters are used to characterize homogeneous units: vs, a proxy of the geotechnical classes of soils, vp related to the saturation degree and vp/vs ratio, related to the liquefaction geophysical susceptibility. A layer is geophysically susceptible to liquefaction when it meets the following criteria: a) vs< 270 m/s and 1300  5.