Two typical suffering cases of slightly-inclined residential ground at the time of Mid Niigata Prefecture Earthquake 2004 are examined. Around the houses on the thickly filled ground, large residual settlement was observed clearly. Probably, the liquefaction of saturated sand in the ground may be related to the damage. In this study, the mechanism of damage is examined based on the 2-D dynamic elasto-plastic finite element method. In the analysis, the material parameters have been determined based on the distribution of shear wave velocity in the ground, which was estimated by the surface-wave investigation. It is shown that the dynamic elasto-plastic finite element analysis with the surface-wave investigation is very effective for the evaluation of the seismic stability of the ground.
