Hearing and seeing the stories pouring out of Japan after Friday's massive earthquake, one feels an immense sense of helplessness. You see all these people who's lives were turned completely upside-down and who are sometimes reverting to that most basic of human behaviors -- survival mode.
They naturally will feel shell-shocked, though assistance may be close-at-hand -- I heard that aid is quickly pouring-into Japan from around the world and that this famously closed society is accepting aid even from nations which it typically views with distrust, such as China and S. Korea.
I just heard that there are already seven U.S. Navy warships close to Japan, lending assistance -- including the supercarrier USS Ronald Reagan with its fleet of helicopters.
The title for this post came from a story I heard about earthquake building codes and about how even though buildings are designed to protect lives during truly massive earthquakes, the buildings do not remain serviceable. In other words, even though the buildings might not collapse during the earthquake, thereby saving the lives of their occupants, they will not be inhabitable and will ultimately need to be knocked down and re-built.
The latest Structural Engineering technology apparently revolves around "Building Resiliency" and "Seismic Isolation" of buildings. The former employing novel materials which can better withstand the violent movement of earthquakes and the latter employing devices which serve to isolate the building from the movement of the ground, much like the shock absorbers found in a car.
These technologies, which sound like science fiction, are apparently being employed today.
Designing Buildings to Withstand Earthquakes
Edited on March 15:
I saw another article on the subject of this blog post titled:
Making Buildings Safer with Earthquake Shock Absorbers
Interesting stuff for sure.
They naturally will feel shell-shocked, though assistance may be close-at-hand -- I heard that aid is quickly pouring-into Japan from around the world and that this famously closed society is accepting aid even from nations which it typically views with distrust, such as China and S. Korea.
I just heard that there are already seven U.S. Navy warships close to Japan, lending assistance -- including the supercarrier USS Ronald Reagan with its fleet of helicopters.
The title for this post came from a story I heard about earthquake building codes and about how even though buildings are designed to protect lives during truly massive earthquakes, the buildings do not remain serviceable. In other words, even though the buildings might not collapse during the earthquake, thereby saving the lives of their occupants, they will not be inhabitable and will ultimately need to be knocked down and re-built.
The latest Structural Engineering technology apparently revolves around "Building Resiliency" and "Seismic Isolation" of buildings. The former employing novel materials which can better withstand the violent movement of earthquakes and the latter employing devices which serve to isolate the building from the movement of the ground, much like the shock absorbers found in a car.
These technologies, which sound like science fiction, are apparently being employed today.
Designing Buildings to Withstand Earthquakes
Edited on March 15:
I saw another article on the subject of this blog post titled:
Making Buildings Safer with Earthquake Shock Absorbers
Interesting stuff for sure.
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