Also as seen in construction - coping with or preventing ground liquefaction under the vibration of an earthquake is a major consideration in foundation design. San Francisco's SoMa district is particularly prone to the phenomenon given its high water table and sandy soil, and so all construction there needs to include analysis of liquefaction risks in its regulatory filings.

Liquefaction under the normal pressure of a building's weight can also be a problem, and may have contributed to the notorious sinking of the (also in SoMa) Millennium Tower.

Many low-lying sections of Tokyo, Osaka, and other Japanese cities were built on landfill and are at risk of liquefaction in earthquakes. Government agencies issue detailed maps [1, 2] showing the degree of danger in each location.

Awareness of the dangers of liquefaction in Japan was kickstarted by buildings that tipped over in an earthquake in Niigata in 1964 [3]. A video showing many vivid examples of liquefaction after the big 2011 earthquake is at [4].

My family and I lived for more than a decade in a high-rise apartment building on a landfill island near the Tokyo waterfront, and the risk of soil liquefaction in a major earthquake was never far from my mind. We now live in Yokohama on a hill that is marked on the maps as relatively safe [5], but most of the nearby stores and train stations are in high-risk areas.

[1] https://doboku.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/start/03-jyouhou/ekijyouka/...

[2] https://www.pref.osaka.lg.jp/attach/31241/00267400/PL-Osaka....

[3] https://www.geoengineer.org/education/web-class-projects/ce-...

[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GviJkVEMfwQ

[5] https://www.city.yokohama.lg.jp/kurashi/bousai-kyukyu-bohan/...

Yup, that's the same reason SoMa is at such risk

Liquifaction was a huge problem for the Christchurch earthquake a decade ago. Many of the suburbs had 100% of houses destroyed and the areas were not rebuilt (Google: red zone Christchurch).

https://www.google.com/search?q=christchurch+liquefaction+20...

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Preliminary-liquefaction...

I didn't know about this. Interesting!

https://www.sfgate.com/news/editorspicks/article/SF-s-sinkin...

Came here to make this same comment. My father in-law has been in construction for 60 years, this is one of his favourite words. Neat to see it here on HN.

I've been involved in several projects using Explosive Densification to combat soil liquefaction, its pretty dang fun.

That is, using a sequence of explosive charges to improve soil compaction by breaking bonds and driving out latent water content. It triggers a cycle of liquefaction and then compaction afterwards.

http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S...

We had a lot of liquefaction in Christchurch during the 2011 quake.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XwPmoIRwLo