Preventing Earthquakes With... Bacteria?

If you live near the sea, your home is probably built over sandy soil. When earthquakes strike, deep and sandy soils can turn into liquid, causing lots of problems for the buildings sitting on top of them. The picture shows a building after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake in San Francisco.

It is possible to inject chemicals into the ground to harden the sandy soil, but this often has toxic effects on the soil and water. Researchers have discovered a new way to turn these sandy soils into rocks... using bacteria! As an added advantage, this common bacteria has no harmful effects on the environment. THought this method is currently still limited to laboratories, researchers are working hard to expand this technique.

Source:Bacteria to protect against quakes