3 ms·

> You do need to take fill into account to build in an earthquake-safe way, but modern engineering is well up to the task. That's pretty hand-wavy. I'm sure th

> You do need to take fill into account to build in an earthquake-safe way, but modern engineering is well up to the task. That's pretty hand-wavy. I'm sure the guys in 1970 said the same argument. The word modern has been around for thousands of years.

beerandt 7y ago
Soil liquefaction is better understood, in the sense that we know better than to use certain soils for fill. A lot of these soils happen to be the ones dredged from water bottoms.
- greggman2 7y ago
  Even Japan doesn't handle earthquakes (according to an NHK special on quakes). They built all these earthquake proof buildings and then the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake came along with new behavior that none of the buildings in Japan are built for. They did come up with new ways to build to handle this new type of quake but of course that's only for buildings since 2016 (probably more like 2018 when they figured out what to do) so slowly new buildings will get build with the new mitigations and we'll cross our fingers the next quake isn't yet another different kind. https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/tv/documentary/20180617/4001282/ https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/tv/documentary/20180617/4...
  - EdwardDiego 7y ago
    Question is, did people get out of those buildings alive?
- EdwardDiego 7y ago
  Yep, you definitely don't want to be building on uniformly graded soils, especially not unconsolidated fine-grained soils. Which is pretty much why we got "residential red zones"[1] in Kaiapoi and Christchurch in the 2010 Greendale earthquake and subsequent aftershocks - suburban areas built on large unconsolidated deposits of fine alluvial silts left by the Waimakariri River in its long wanderings across the Canterbury Plains[2] suffered massive liquefaction, repeatedly. IIRC liquefaction has even been observed in uniform gravels. [1]https://www.linz.govt.nz/crown-property/types-crown-property/christchurch-residential-red-zone/residential-red-zone-areas https://www.linz.govt.nz/crown-property/types-crown-property... [2]https://www.ecan.govt.nz/get-involved/news-and-events/zone-news/waimakariri/shifting-role-of-the-waimakariri-river/ https://www.ecan.govt.nz/get-involved/news-and-events/zone-n...

beerandt 7y ago

Soil liquefaction is better understood, in the sense that we know better than to use certain soils for fill. A lot of these soils happen to be the ones dredged from water bottoms.

greggman2 7y ago
Even Japan doesn't handle earthquakes (according to an NHK special on quakes). They built all these earthquake proof buildings and then the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake came along with new behavior that none of the buildings in Japan are built for. They did come up with new ways to build to handle this new type of quake but of course that's only for buildings since 2016 (probably more like 2018 when they figured out what to do) so slowly new buildings will get build with the new mitigations and we'll cross our fingers the next quake isn't yet another different kind. https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/tv/documentary/20180617/4001282/ https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/tv/documentary/20180617/4...
- EdwardDiego 7y ago
  Question is, did people get out of those buildings alive?
EdwardDiego 7y ago
Yep, you definitely don't want to be building on uniformly graded soils, especially not unconsolidated fine-grained soils. Which is pretty much why we got "residential red zones"[1] in Kaiapoi and Christchurch in the 2010 Greendale earthquake and subsequent aftershocks - suburban areas built on large unconsolidated deposits of fine alluvial silts left by the Waimakariri River in its long wanderings across the Canterbury Plains[2] suffered massive liquefaction, repeatedly. IIRC liquefaction has even been observed in uniform gravels. [1]https://www.linz.govt.nz/crown-property/types-crown-property/christchurch-residential-red-zone/residential-red-zone-areas https://www.linz.govt.nz/crown-property/types-crown-property... [2]https://www.ecan.govt.nz/get-involved/news-and-events/zone-news/waimakariri/shifting-role-of-the-waimakariri-river/ https://www.ecan.govt.nz/get-involved/news-and-events/zone-n...