Earthquakes exert lateral loads on buildings. Please review the provisions and requirements explained by the latest revision of the "International Building Code" (IBC) and latest edition of "Minimum Design Loads and Associated Criteria for Buildings and Other Structures" Specifications (ASCE-07) on earthquake loads, strengthening of foundations and bracing of structures against seismic loads.
Yes you can but the effects will depend from the soil type, in the cases where you have compressible ground (fill) with high water table. In general, using pile foundations you bridge the deformable soil and you introduce additional soil stiffness to the foundation (underground) system. At the same time with deep foundation systems you have greater radiational damping which attenuates the osculation of structure.
Earthquake exerts two types of lateral forces on the foundation, the first one is due to inertia forces (i.e. self weight of the foundation) and the second one is kinematic forces in soil which is inducing liquefaction of soil. So the lateral forces induced on the foundation due to self weight of the structure and due to soil liquefaction..you will find these details in any books that discuss about earthquake forces in soils..the one book titled 'response of pile with the effect of liquefaction' authored by Gopal Madhubhusi..ok all the best..