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Soil liquefaction is the real risk during earthquakes. Clay absorbs the energy and shakes a great deal more, and the soil can potentially destabilize further an
by knorby 10y ago
Soil liquefaction is the real risk during earthquakes. Clay absorbs the energy and shakes a great deal more, and the soil can potentially destabilize further and allow structures to sink in.
- wlesieutre 10y agoFor anyone not familiar, this is an effect where if you load wet soil just right it will break the structure of the soil grains and turn into a fluid. Demo here, you can skip the first minute if you're short on time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-X9-4tWpMCo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-X9-4tWpMCo Wikipedia has more information and some good photos: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil_liquefaction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil_liquefaction It's a really cool and equally terrifying phenomenon if you're used to thinking of the ground as a solid object. Plenty of videos on YouTube as well. EDIT- Here's a car that sunk into the ground, which then resolidified around it: https://youtu.be/2WoKu5VxKgs?t=50 https://youtu.be/2WoKu5VxKgs?t=50 http://izismile.com/2012/08/31/christchurch_liquefaction_26_pics.html http://izismile.com/2012/08/31/christchurch_liquefaction_26_...