How many Bay Area concrete buildings might fall like those in Turkey’s deadly earthquake?

The scenes of tilted, crumbled and collapsed concrete buildings after powerful earthquakes jolted Turkey and Syria last month are sobering. In Turkey alone, the shaking wrecked some 185,000 buildings, and the death toll in both countries has topped 48,000 people.

Could the Bay Area’s concrete buildings suffer a similar fate when The Big One strikes?

Fortunately, experts say California wouldn’t see the level of devastation like that in Turkey and Syria. But there is a danger, and experts say some buildings erected before 1980 using inflexible or “nonductile” concrete construction will fall. The trick is figuring out which ones — and what to do about them — before it’s too

→ Continue reading at Silicon Valley

More from author

Related posts

Advertisment

Latest posts

The Tantalizing Mystery of the Solar System’s Hidden Oceans

The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine.For most of humankind’s existence, Earth was the only known ocean-draped world, seemingly unlike any...

The Role of Scholarships and Grants in Financing Education

Applying for scholarships and grants helps students pay for college. In some situations, these awards allow people to obtain a degree they wouldn't be...

EV, hybrid and gas-powered: Some interesting cars coming in 2024 | CNN Business

CNN  —  Next year will see the introduction of some new, genuinely affordable electric vehicles as well as...