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What happens when a house is on uncompacted loose sediment during an earthquake?

User Flops
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Areas where the buildings are built on top of a deep layer of loose sediments are widely recognized as being more prone to earthquake damage... Yes.

To be clear, this is not the same the same thing as saying that loose soils actually "amplify" seismic waves. If anything, both P waves and S waves are attenuated by unconsolidated materials.

User Hirt
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