On June 7, 1692, the Jamaican city of Port Royal, a notorious pirate haven, sank into
its own harbor.
This disaster (or blessing, depending on who you ask) was caused by liquefaction of the
ground following a major earthquake, and we know it happened at exactly 11:43 am thanks
to a pocketwatch that went down along with two thirds of the town and over 2000 people.
Liquefaction happens when waterlogged, loose soil (we call it "sand") turns into quicksand
- temporarily.
If you look closely at sand, you'll realize that it's actually comprised of tons of tiny
rocks, and their roundness and roughly uniform size mean there's space between them that
can get filled by water.
When we step on saturated sand at the water's edge, it's fairly stable because the particles
get pushed together and rest on each other, while any excess water escapes by flowing
away to where the pressure is lower.
We can (and do) build buildings on wet sandy soil, since the weight of the grains and the
friction between them makes the soil behave as a solid most of the time.
But in an earthquake, soil particles repeatedly jostle back and forth so much that the water
can't flow away.
Loosely packed dry soils tend to compress under stress, but with incompressible water
in the gaps between grains (which can't escape), the soil can't compress and the water takes
the load.
Unfortunately, water, as a liquid, doesn't have much structural integrity - so if the
saturated soil is forced to compress too much too quickly, it will start to act like a liquid,
and dense objects resting on the now liquefied soil will sink.
You can experience liquefaction for yourself in the water-soaked sand near the edge of
a beach - it feels pretty solid if you stand still, but if you wiggle your toes, the movement
causes the sand to liquefy beneath you, burying your feet.
On a larger scale, earthquake-induced liquefaction can swallow cars, roads, and even enormous
apartment complexes.
In other words, earthquakes can create quicksand, except that when the shaking stops and the
soil particles are no longer suspended in water, the ground solidifies again and anything
that sank becomes stuck.
Like this carrrrrr.