Major construction

faults in the
construction of a
building collapsed in an
earthquake
Most of the damage we associate with
earthquakes involves human-built
structures: people trapped by collapsed
buildings. Here are some faults in
construction that often leads to the
collapse of buildings in an earthquake.
 1.The lack of reinforcements
coupled with poor mortar and
inadequate roof-to-wall ties
can result in substantial
damage to a unreinforced
masonry building. Severely
cracked or leaning walls are
some of the most common
earthquake damage. Also
Typical damage to hazardous is the damage that
unreinforced may occur between the walls
masonry buildings at and roof or floor diaphragms.
earthquakes Separation between the
framing and the walls can
jeopardize the vertical support
of roof and floor systems.
2. Absence of adequate shear
walls on the ground level
caused damage to this
structure. A close examination
of the image reveals that the
rough board siding, once
covered by a brick veneer, has
been completely dismantled Soft story collapse
from the stud wall. Only the due to inadequate
rigidity of the floor above shear strength at
combined with the support on ground level,
the two hidden sides by Loma Prieta
continuous walls, not earthquake (Oct
penetrated with large doors as 17, 1989 san
on the street sides, is Francisco)
preventing full collapse of the
structure.
 3. In the cases where the soil
consists of loose granular
deposited materials with the
tendency to develop
excessive hydrostatic pore
water pressure of sufficient
magnitude and compact,
liquefaction of those loose
Effects of soil saturated deposits may result
liquefaction in non-uniform settlements
during the 1964 and tilting of structures. This
Niigata caused major damage to
earthquake thousands of buildings in
Niigata, Japan during the
1964 earthquake.
4. At Northridge earthquake, the
Kaiser Permanente concrete
frame office building had joints
completely shattered, revealing
inadequate confinement steel,
which resulted in the second
story collapse. In the transverse
direction, composite end shear
walls, consisting of two wythes Effects of
completely
of brick and a layer of shotcrete
shattered joints of
that carried the lateral load, concrete frame,
peeled apart because of Northridge
inadequate through-ties and
failed.
 5. Sliding off foundations
effect of a relatively rigid
residential building structure
during 1987 Whittier Narrows
earthquake. The magnitude
5.9 earthquake pounded the
Garvey West Apartment
building in Monterey Park,
California and shifted its
superstructure about 10 inches
to the east on its foundation.
If a superstructure is not
Shifting from mounted on a base isolation
foundation, system, its shifting on the
basement should be
Whittier(1 Oct, prevented.
1987 in US)
6. Also during construction, less use of concrete
and the use of other cheap materials makes
the building weak and more vulnerable to a
collapse in an earthquake.

7. If the structure is more rigid than flexible then

also the building is more likely to collapse
because if the flexibility is more, then less
energy is required to keep the building from
moving during seismic waves. Therefore, sky
scrapers are less vulnerable to a collapse than
a three storey building.
 Earthquake
cases in Haiti
and Chile
The recent earthquake on 12 January in Haiti (Léogâne
near Port-au-Prince) had a magnitude of 7 Richter in
the epicentre. With an estimated depth of 13 km under
the city of 2 million inhabitants it resulted in massive
damage and somewhere between 50,000 to 230,000
causalities. The number has been very uncertain
because of a failing government infrastructure.

The latest large earthquake occurred on 27 February

2010 in Chile (Maule region, Cañete) had a magnitude
of 8.8 Richter in the epicentre being 115 km from the
city of Concepción, with a depth of 35 km, being one of
the largest earthquakes ever registered worldwide. The
death toll in Chile however, was approximately 300,
being more than doubled by the following tsunami to
over 708, and counting.
The difference in death tolls are significant and caused
by the following characteristics.
Haiti, 12 Jan 2010 Chile, 27 Feb. 2010
1. Force of earthquake 7 on Richter 8.8 on Richter scale= 500 x stronger
scale
2. 54 aftershocks 4 Richter greater with Maximum aftershocks 6.2 Richter
two of magnitude 5.9 Richter
3. Poor quality houses, not built Better quality houses mostly built
according to earthquake codes according to the earthquake codes.
4. Many single storey adobe houses in House destruction along the coast also
town, having a loose structure and large by tsunami flood.
mass.

5. No exist government control on Government control on designs and

building practices and substantial reasonable government control with
corruption. little corruption.

6. No history of large earthquakes and History of very large earthquakes in

no information available on better same region and available
design. documentation with pictures.

7. Large amount of informal building Training of architects and engineers

without involvement of architects and include the application of the
engineers. earthquake design code.
Although the earthquake in Chile was 500 times
stronger, the larger depth and the lesser
population nearby are part of the lesser number
of causalities. However, the largest difference is
the better building construction practised in
Chile. This is a result of one of the largest
recorded earthquakes ever recorded in the same
region in 1960 and a functioning government
structure as opposed to Haiti which is a failed
state for the last half century. The failed state
situation causes lack of training of engineers and
architects and a total lack of control on what
was/is being build.