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My understanding is that earthquake resistant buildings should be able to withstand up to 7 with negligible to slight damage. Hopefully governments take build

My understanding is that earthquake resistant buildings should be able to withstand up to 7 with negligible to slight damage. Hopefully governments take building codes more seriously. https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/earthquake-intensity-scale https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/earthquake-intensity-scale

hutzlibu 3y ago
Morocco is quite poor in rural areas. You have to be able to fund a solid building and regulations help little with that. Otherwise you just create lots of corruption.
- Retric 3y ago
  Corrupt is a big deal, but not insurmountable. Convincing people that traditional methods aren’t earthquake resistant is one way to sidestep the issue. It’s not particularly expensive to build somewhat earthquake resistant structures. Quite a lot of it comes down to building techniques rather than significant effort or expensive materials. Multi story stone building generally do extremely poorly, but there’s a few cheap methods to significantly improve things such as timber bracing. The goal isn’t to make the building survive unscathed but to minimize casualties.
  - hutzlibu 3y ago
    "Convincing people that traditional methods aren’t earthquake resistant is one way to sidestep the issue." Actually, the really old traditional buildings in morroco are quite earthquake resistant, because they are still standing and it was not the first earthquake there. It's the cheaply build new houses, that are the problem and yes, now is the time to give awareness that you should not build too cheaply and what one can do even with limited ressources. But I fear that the main response will be literal death penalty for some building company owners (morroco is a quite absolutistic monarchy) and otherwise not much change.
    - Retric 3y ago
      While many older structures survive, you don’t see all of those structures built using similar methods that didn’t. Morocco has had similarly devastating earthquakes in 2004 (6.3) and 1960 (5.8) that killed ~13,000, but the region gets vastly larger earthquakes. In 1969 a 7.8 occurred far enough offshore to only kill 13.
lemper 3y ago
in tfa, houses in the rural areas were the one which took the brunt. also, it's a random poor country, mate. there's a whole world outside the states which has their own situations and other things to be prioritised.

hutzlibu 3y ago

Morocco is quite poor in rural areas. You have to be able to fund a solid building and regulations help little with that. Otherwise you just create lots of corruption.

Retric 3y ago
Corrupt is a big deal, but not insurmountable. Convincing people that traditional methods aren’t earthquake resistant is one way to sidestep the issue. It’s not particularly expensive to build somewhat earthquake resistant structures. Quite a lot of it comes down to building techniques rather than significant effort or expensive materials. Multi story stone building generally do extremely poorly, but there’s a few cheap methods to significantly improve things such as timber bracing. The goal isn’t to make the building survive unscathed but to minimize casualties.
- hutzlibu 3y ago
  "Convincing people that traditional methods aren’t earthquake resistant is one way to sidestep the issue." Actually, the really old traditional buildings in morroco are quite earthquake resistant, because they are still standing and it was not the first earthquake there. It's the cheaply build new houses, that are the problem and yes, now is the time to give awareness that you should not build too cheaply and what one can do even with limited ressources. But I fear that the main response will be literal death penalty for some building company owners (morroco is a quite absolutistic monarchy) and otherwise not much change.
  - Retric 3y ago
    While many older structures survive, you don’t see all of those structures built using similar methods that didn’t. Morocco has had similarly devastating earthquakes in 2004 (6.3) and 1960 (5.8) that killed ~13,000, but the region gets vastly larger earthquakes. In 1969 a 7.8 occurred far enough offshore to only kill 13.

lemper 3y ago

in tfa, houses in the rural areas were the one which took the brunt. also, it's a random poor country, mate. there's a whole world outside the states which has their own situations and other things to be prioritised.