Fig. 4. Loading–unloading curves for (A) muddy sediment and (B) gelatin showing linear elastic behavior for both materials. Force was measured as a 0.0254-m diameter cylindrical probe was lowered onto the surface of the material using a Vitrodyne-V1000 Universal Tester. Both materials exhibit linear elastic loading, although sediment shows a low resilience and a small plastic deformation after the first loading, visible as an approximately 0.5x10^–3 m shift to the right from the initial loading curve to the second loading curve (also visible as a slight compression of the surface sediment, not shown). Subsequent loadings show minimal deformation.