Liquefaction explained

Christchurch resident Andrew Gee uses a wheelbarrow and cobblestones to demonstrate how liquefaction occurs.

Transcript

ANDREW GEE So this is the liquefaction out the back, dug it out, so you can see across the rose bed, all this sand has just come up out of the ground, and I have a wheelbarrow full of it at the moment cause it’s quite solid. So you’ll see this reliquify as we go back out to the driveway, particularly as we drive across the cobbles on the driveway. Just starting to get a bit of liquefaction in now. Cobbles here – onto the cobbles now – shaking now. This is exactly what happened to the city with buildings on top. It turns to liquid. When we stop moving, it solidifies or stabilises a fraction, so this is why our buildings are busy falling over, all this liquefaction from solid to liquid.