When I lived in Phoenix, they called this "Expansive soil".. but it was pretty much clay that did this..

saw it first hand- house across the street got a leak in their pool... it had an auto-fill valve to keep it topped up, so they didn't notice, until the crack appeared in the ceiling of their house...

by the time it stopped shifting, there was about a 2" gap in the ceiling, and about a 1" crack in the floor caused by the expansion... they were afraid the house was going to have to be torn down..