Monday 24 March 2008

Extension - Quake Shake - will my home collapse?

Professor James Jackson from the University of Cambridge has added this interesting addition to the extension notes on this activity. He has attached an extract about the liquefaction of the Ganges plain in the 1934 Bihar earthquake; this gives you a taste of what is to come - -

“. . . . As the rocking ceased . . . water spouts, hundreds of them throwing up water and sand, were to be observed on the whole face of the country, the sand forming miniature volcanoes, whilst the water spouted out of the craters, some of the spouts were quite five feet high. In a few minutes - as far as the eye could see - was a vast expanse of sand and water, water and sand. The road spouted water and wide openings were to be seen across it ahead of me, and my car sank, while the water and sand bubbled and spat, and sucked, till my axles were covered. ‘Abandon ship’ was quickly obeyed, and my man and I stepped into knee deep water and sand and made for the shore.”
From the Bihar-Nepal earthquake of 1934, Memoirs of the Geological Society, India, 73, 391 pp,1939 (p34).

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