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Turkish Earthquake Deaths Were Preventable
West Lafayette IN (UPI) Sep 19, 2005 Purdue University scientists analyzed the 2003 Turkish earthquake and concluded the deaths of 168 people, many of them children, could have been prevented. The report, recently prepared for the National Science Foundation, details how the quake caused extensive damage to 180 buildings, including 48 schools and four dormitories in the eastern Turkish city of Bingol. Although Turkey has modern building codes, the report concluded: "There is a striking gap between the requirements of these codes and actual construction practice - both in the rural and the urban areas." Engineering professors Mete Sozen and Julio Ramirez said the school buildings that failed had a feature called captive columns. "This occurs when you build a reinforced-concrete column, which is nice and slender, and then you build a wall right next to the column, b! ut not as high as the column," said Sozen. "That makes the unsupported portion of the column very rigid and brittle so that earthquake forces concentrate on the column, causing it to break." After one column breaks, the weight of the building causes the remaining columns to collapse, he added. The 6.4 magnitude Bingol earthquake struck in a region where the North and East Anatolian Faults converge. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links SpaceDaily Search SpaceDaily Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express Tectonic Science and News
Ash Continuing To Spew From Vanuatu Volcano
Sydney (AFP) Dec 12, 2005Thousands of tonnes of ash are continuing to spew from a volcano in Vanuatu, but officials said Monday the activity on the South Pacific nation was not likely to result in a major deadly eruption. |
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