Eric enjoys skateboarding, sport fishing, and mountain biking. He plays the guitar and is involved in robotic design and programming. Eric aspires to a career in environmental science, preferably one that will allow him to work outdoors with the ocean or the environment. Eric cites his mother, father, and older brother as mentors.
Living near the San Andreas Fault, Eric is acutely aware of the danger of earthquakes. He learned how earthquakes could create soil liquefaction—a state where soil momentarily behaves like a liquid. He wanted to know if soils from different regions had different liquefaction properties.
Eric collected soil from various desert locations in Riverside and San Bernadino Counties. He measured the percentage of sand, silt, and clay in each sample. For each test, he added 4 gallons of soil to a 5-gallon pail, added water to fill the bucket, and placed a model home on top of the soil. He placed the bucket on a platform that was bolted to a concrete vibrator. He ran the vibrator for one minute, and then measured how far the model home sank into the soil. He found that soils with the smallest percentage of clay better supported the model house—meaning they liquefied less than other soils.
