Earthquake-induced ground deformations resulting from contractive volumetric strains in unsaturated compacted soil have been observed in numerous earthquakes. This process, termed seismic-compression, is investigated using a robust cyclic simple shear device. Testing is performed on re-compacted specimens using soils retrieved from three sites near Santa Clarita, California which experienced varying levels of ground deformation during the 1994 Northridge earthquake. A key objective of the testing is to evaluate the adequacy of existing design procedures that are based on simple shear testing of clean, uniform sands for soils containing significant fines. A total of seven soils were tested: a clean uniform sand and six different soils from the three field sites possessing varying levels of fines content and plasticity. The soils containing fines were compacted to a range of water contents and dry densities to evaluate the dependence of volume change susceptibility on compaction conditions. Both formation water content and dry density were found to significantly affect the magnitude of volumetric strains induced by cyclic loading. At the same relative compaction and induced shear strain, soils containing fines generally underwent smaller contractive volumetric strains than clean sands. Soil specimens compacted wet of the line-of-optimums generally experienced less seismic-compression than soil specimens compacted on the dry side.