Imagining the sight of solid ground transforming into a gooey flowing liquid, while small geysers surge floods of sandy water to the surface – might seem like a fictional Hollywood movie special effect.
But seismologists and engineers have outlined large stretches of land -- including populated areas --where an earthquake could cause the earth beneath homes, roads, and feet, to soften, undulate, and behave like a fluid.
On several area maps, liquefaction zones marble-like connective tissue – join some of the most populated areas in Western Washington. Video showing liquefaction in places like Mexico City shows pavement appearing to be taking giant deep breaths, as earthquake energy forces powerful waves of wet sandy earth to the surface.
Experts warn the same effect could happen here. “If it’s the right place with the right ground conditions, the earth can literally start shaking like a bowl of Jello,” said U.W. Professor Harold Tobin. “It can turn to goo.”
Tobin, who teaches Seismology and Geohazards in the Department of Earth and Space Sciences says earthquakes around the world have been telling us a story we should better understand. Liquefaction can do more damage after an earthquake than the earthquake itself. “And we know that can happen because it happened during the Nisqually earthquake in 2001. Structures that are built on top of it would also be experiencing the fact that their foundation has gone from being solid ground to being soup. Literally.”
Satellite time-lapse video highlighted one of the most dramatic destructive examples of liquefaction. Moments after a 7.5 earthquake, the earth under a stretch of populated villages in Indonesia became a flowing crush of surging mud. Hundreds of homes were plowed under an unstoppable current of quicksand.
A closer look as the earthquake shook showed- the earth beneath a street becoming a boggy liquid. “If you’re on a plot where liquefaction’s taking place, your house could list like a boat and end up at an angle that you don’t really want your house to be,” said Tobin.
But large buildings could also slide and settle in liquefaction, according to Tobin. In Japan, engineering experiments show structures sinking in soil liquefied from a vigorous shake in the same types of soils in the liquefaction zones in Washington.
Stadiums in SoDo are in the zone
Among the landmarks in Seattle’s liquefaction zone – just south of Pioneer Square –are both Lumen Field and T-Mobile Park, where more than three million people flow in and out every year. Engineers say the stadiums are built to be stable in moving earth. Each building is anchored on thousands of steel piles drilled 70 feet into firmer rock.
City of Seattle engineers have interactive maps showing where soils are most vulnerable in a seismic event. Other maps show zones stretching from Renton through Kent and Auburn, where a million people live and drive.
One scientist has seen it happen here
Retired seismological technician Bob Norris was working for the USGS in 2001 when he saw liquefaction beneath his feet during the Nisqually earthquake. “I was pulling in to read a seismograph on Harbor Island. All the sudden, my truck began yawing back and forth.”
Norris thought a water main had burst beneath him. “I opened the doors of the truck, and after a few minutes an area near me just suddenly started slashing with wet silt. Then a geyser erupted. Water started shooting out of the ground right next to my truck, and it formed a lake right in front of my eyes.”
Even as a seismic expert who’d studied the effects of earthquakes, it took a few tense moments for Norris to realize he was witnessing liquefaction. Years later, updated maps show the house where Norris lives could also be at risk of being damaged by liquefaction. “The foundation may break or be unsettled by liquefaction if it occurs right under the house,” Norris said.
That’s why Norris says he’s moving out. He says another earthquake could happen at any time. It’s not an ‘if’; it’s a ‘when.’
“Well, it will happen again, said Norris. “You can bet on that. That’s a certainty.”
Check risks where you live here.
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