Liquefaction is a phenomenon in which the strength and stiffness of a soil is reduced by earthquake shaking or other rapid loading. Liquefaction can cause major damage during an earthquake.

Discover interesting facts about how big earthquakes can get, why earthquakes happen, and why they're so hard to predict.

Experts warn the same effect could happen here. “If it’s the right place with the right ground conditions, the earth can ...

Buildings can be damaged by the shaking itself or by the ground beneath them settling to a different level than it was before the earthquake (subsidence). Buildings can even sink into the ground if ...

The January 1 Noto Peninsula Earthquake caused widespread liquefaction. Houses and roads sustained damage when loosely packed, waterlogged sediments at or near the ground surface lost their strength.

Liquefaction only needs a few seconds to develop, but its effects are long-lasting. Sandy soils, silt, and gravel get separated with groundwater from a large earthquake, resulting in large ground ...

A dataset that provides key input for assessing earthquake-induced liquefaction triggering won a 2024 DesignSafe Dataset award, which recognized the dataset's diverse contributions to natural ...

Earthquakes are among nature’s most unpredictable and potentially devastating phenomena, bringing with them a wide range of ...

Geologists believe there is little to no risk of landslides or liquefaction in the area, according to the USGS. More than two dozen earthquakes followed the original, with magnitudes between 2.5 ...

Building off that past work, Citadel researcher Simon Ghanat projected how extensive liquefaction could get in Charleston during an earthquake. Already, the peninsula's existing conditions would ...