Ground surface settlement caused by explosion-induced liquefaction of saturated sand foundation is an important subject in the seismic safety evaluation and explosion compaction of dam foundation. In this paper, the characteristics of ground surface settlement caused by liquefaction under contained explosions are studied for layered saturated sand foundation with roller compaction. Based on the existing empirical prediction models of explosion-induced liquefaction and surface settlement, the calculation formula of liquefaction volume is derived, and the rapid prediction model of surface settlement area is established and verified for reliability. Based on the above model, the characteristics of the explosion-induced liquefaction zone of saturated sand foundation and the resulted surface settlement funnel are investigated by changing the control factors such as compactness, explosive amount and burial depth, and the influence of stratified ground compaction on the characteristics of the surface settlement funnel is also discussed. The results show that the explosion liquefaction zone of saturated sand foundation has three types from small to large, including ellipsoid type, funnel type and pot bottom type. From small to large, there are two types of surface settlement area: inverted cone type and butterfly type. The liquefaction and settlement zones increase with the increase of explosive amount and the decrease of burial depth and compactness. For the layered saturated sand foundation with rolling compaction, the explosion-induced liquefaction and the resulted surface settlement are not only affected by the amount of explosive, buried depth and density, but also determined by the relative size of delamination thickness compared with the initiation depth, which further affects the range of surface settlement area.