cuartear

To crack — most often a wall, ceiling, wood, or dry earth splitting into fissures (la pared se cuarteó). It can also mean to cut something into quarters, though the "cracking" sense is far more common in modern speech.

• El terremoto cuarteó varias paredes del edificio. — The earthquake cracked several walls in the building.
• La tierra se cuarteó por la sequía. — The ground cracked from the drought.
• La pintura vieja empieza a cuartearse. — The old paint is starting to crack.

In everyday speech this is almost always about visible cracks appearing (a wall, dry ground, paint) — the older "to cut into quarters" sense is much rarer today and can read as archaic outside that context.