You may be asking yourself at this very moment what is Bacillus pasteurii? If you were not you should be. It may soon be an important component in the reduction of earthquake damage due to soil liguefaction. As any homegrown Californian should know soil liquefaction occurs when particles in saturated soil get all shook up during an earthquake, the pressure of the water in the soil increases and the particles start to do the boogie woogie. The soils strength to hold up the foundation of a building decreases and the structure can go cah-boom. Not a good thing.
Now you might just be wondering what does this have to do with this Bacillus pasteurii whatever it is. The microbe Bacillus paseurii causes calcium carbonate to be deposited around sand grains, cementing them together – making sandstone – that stuff we learned about in High School geology. So what?
First consider that our civil engineers have been using chemical concoctions to stick the soil particles together trying to keep structures from falling boom boom. A toxic solution to a natural phenomenon- earthquakes. Plus if it all works out the microbes with a bit of food and air can be injected after construction . A nature based solution – kind of cool if you ask me. But then again, you did not.