Potential of soil liquefaction at Perlis, northern region of Malalysia

Soil liquefaction is earthquake’s secondary effect which could cause fatal damages and structures instability. Despite Malaysia been located in stable zone of Pacific Ring of Fire, few significant surrounded quakes like Sumatra-Andaman earthquake had prompted Malaysian’s public concern, especially in Perlis area, on local seismic resistant. Hence, this research presents the analysis result of liquefaction potential of the soils, as the secondary effect of earthquake, within Perlis, northern region of Malaysia; the next strong and sustainable metropolis by using semi-empirical procedures introduced by Seed and Idriss. The study consists of two stages which were determination of the local geological and geotechnical site conditions within Perlis and analysis of soil liquefaction susceptibility by using various methods and liquefaction potential by using Simplified Procedure developed by Seed and Idriss on stress approach. There were consist of four phases implemented in order to achieve the objectives targeted for the study after problem being identified. Firstly, a comprehensive review of literature on liquefaction at Perlis was carried out. Second phase was data collection process that includes collection of Site Investigation (SI) report. Thirdly, data analysis was carried out by utilizing suitable method. The final phase was to draw conclusion and recommendation for this study. It can be concluded that the overall Perlis due to earthquake moment magnitude below 7.5 has no potential to soil liquefaction. However, with the range of liquefaction potential of 1.60 to 5.64 in Kuala Perlis area, it is liquefiable. The development of liquefaction severity map of Perlis, Malaysia in this research, may be used by others as a reference for seismic design and standard safety measures as well as for further research work.