Liquefaction at its most serious looks like Kobe after the Great Hanshin Earthquake: solid ground loses its solidity, and buildings topple. Now, Chiba prefecture has been afflicted by soil liquefaction.
What does it look like in Chiba?
It sounds cartoonish, but it is horribly serious.
For instance, you can only fill a glass half full. If it's on the table in your house, neither table nor glass is standing up straight because your house is leaning at a crazy angle. If you walk around outside in the affected areas, you might feel suddenly tall because heavy utility poles have sunk to a fraction of their former height. Or maybe you will feel suddenly dwarfed by odd mushroomlike structures sprouting from the streets, because manholes and their hollow concrete cylinders have floated up.
What do you do with a house that didn't fall down, but that won't let you sleep in it because you keep rolling out of bed? Let's hope there are smart engineers out there who can figure out a way to fix Chiba and the damage caused by soil liquefaction.
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