文档介绍：★“Liquefaction” Key to Much of Japanese Earthquake Damage
The massive subduction zone1 earthquake in Japan caused a significant level of soil
"liquefaction"2 that has surprised researchers with its widespread severity, a new analysis shows.
"We've seen localized3 examples of soil liquefaction as extreme as this before, but the distance and extent of damage in Japan were unusually severe," said Scott Ashford, a professor of geotechnical engineering4 at Oregon State University5. "Entire structures were tilted and sinking into the sediments," Ashford said. "The shifts in soil destroyed water, drain and gas pipelines6, crippling the utilities and infrastructure munities need to function . We saw some places that sank as much as four feet."
Some degree of soil liquefaction7 mon in almost any major earthquake. It's a phenomenon in which soils soaked with water, particularly recent sediments or sand, can lose much of their strength and flow during an earthquake. This can allow structures to shift or sink or collapse .
But most earthquakes are much shorter than the recent event in Japan, Ashford said. The length of the Japanese earthquake, as much as five minutes, may force researchers to reconsider the extent of liquefaction damage possibly occurring in situations such as this8.
"With such a long-lasting earthquake, we saw how structures that might have been okay after 30 secon