Buildings and other structures were extensively damaged during the earthquake , but roadways and railways also experienced disturbances . Many case histories pertaining to liquefaction in sandy soil exist , but few exist with respect to gravel and gravelly sands . In certain situations gravelly sands may liquefy in similar fashion as saturated sands . The first well-documented case of liquefaction in gravelly sands was in regard to the 1983 Borah Peak earthquake in the United States . Several investigations of that event took place in the 1980s and early 1990s and the primary conclusions were that a critical condition for liquefaction to occur in that type of soil was the presence of a low permeable crust that did not allow pore water pressures to subside and that the assessment method and associated standard penetration test values used with sandy soils also applied to gravelly soils
1983 Borah Peak earthquake
1983 Borah Peak earthquake
1988 Armenian earthquake