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Top1. Introduction
Imphal city (24.8ºN 93.9ºE), the capital of Manipur state, is situated at the extreme end of Northeastern (NE) India and adjacent to Myanmar. Past earthquake histories of NE India show that the region is seismically most active as compared to other parts of India. As a result, the NE region has been assigned Zone V (most severe seismic hazard zone) in the seismic zoning map of India (Bureau of Indian Standard, 2002). Liquefaction is a common cause of ground failure and structural damage in any earthquake (e.g., Kramer, 2008; Nandy, 2001; Madabushi & Heigh, 2005) viz., NE-India (1869, 1897, and 1950 Assam), Alaska (1964), Nigata (1964), Kobe (1985), Loma Prieta (1989), Turkey (1999) Adana-ceyhan (1999) Kocali, Taiwan (1999 Chi-Chi) and India (2001 Bhuj). In all these cities partial or complete bearing failures of shallow-founded structures occurred at sites due to liquefaction-type damages. Ambraseys (1988) studied worldwide earthquakes and liquefaction data and concluded that an earthquake of magnitude as low as 5 can produce liquefaction. It may be noted that since 1897, this NE region has experienced more than 1500 earthquakes of magnitudes ≥ 5. In seismic prone areas like Imphal city liquefaction potential must be evaluated during site selection and planning stages of engineering structures. In order to compute the liquefaction potential of soil, many methods have been developed by engineers and researchers (Seed & Idriss, 1971; Iwasaki et al., 1982; Seed & Idriss, 1982; Liao et al., 1988; Bartlett & Youd, 1995; Harder, 1997; Youd & Idriss, 1997; Youd & Noble, 1997; Chen & Juang, 2000; Cetin et al., 2002; Juang et al., 2003; Sonmez, 2003; Lee et al., 2003; Sonmez & Gokceoglu, 2005; Idriss & Boulanger, 2006; Moss et al., 2006).