6.1.1: Introduction
- Page ID
- 6037
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Overview
We live in earthquake country, but we don’t want to leave the Pacific Northwest. Fortunately, we know how to improve our chances for survival simply by making intelligent decisions about where we live or work and how we build. The technology is at hand to evaluate the geologic setting of a building site with respect to earthquake hazard.
Three different earthquake problems are associated with surface sites: (1) amplification of seismic waves by soft surficial deposits, (2) liquefaction of near-surface sediments, and (3) failure of hillslopes by landslides, rockfalls, and debris flows.