Geologic conditions can also provide a good indication of liquefaction susceptibility.

Liquefaction susceptibility is strongly influenced by soil composition, specifically by factors

such as grain size distribution and particle shape. Uniformly graded soils and soils with
rounded particle shapes are most susceptible to liquefaction. Consequently, geologic
processes that sort soils into deposits of uniform gradation with rounded particles will tend to
produce soil deposits with high susceptibility to liquefaction. For many years, only sands were
considered to be susceptible to liquefaction. It is now recognized, however, that liquefaction
can occur over a broader range of soil types. Liquefaction of gravels and non-plastic silts has
been observed in several earthquakes, though the database of these observations is small
compared to that of clean and silty sands.
Clays are not susceptible to liquefaction, although some can exhibit strain-softening behavior
similar to that of liquefiable soils. The so-called “Chinese criteria” are used to identify clayey
soils that are susceptible to significant strength loss (all of the following conditions must be
met):
Clay fraction (finer than 0.005 mm)  15%
Liquid limit, LL < 35%
Natural water content  0.90 LL
Liquidity index ≤ 0.75

Some sandy soils include clayey fines. Ishihara and Koseki (1989) showed that plastic fines
tend to inhibit pore-pressure generation and suggested that the plasticity index, PI, of the
fines be used to determine a factor

F = max [1.0, 1.0 + 0.022(PI – 10)]

by which the computed factor of safety against liquefaction should be multiplied to account for
plastic fines.