Earthquake-proof house

[twirlgrrl]

A cursory Google search says it can't truly be done. But I think they must be speaking from a cost-of-mass-produced-housing perspective. If one had the money, couldn't a series of impermeable steel boxes be welded together strongly enough to withstand major earthquakes? At least that would be my inclination. Engineers seem to go for bendy or bouncy solutions like springs and foam. Maybe those are better. But I would sleep reallllly well in a welded steel box with everything tied and taped down inside.

I think.

Comments

[the-changeling.livejournal.com]

Actually, it's better to go bendy. There isn't any such thing as a totally rigid steel box - apart from anything else, you'd need to breathe - so there would have to be holes for air! Add in electricity, etc, and most steel boxes would have to have huge holes in them. Then there's them pesky windows.. people will insist on window. And doors!

A rigid structure would be more damaged than a flexible one, as the rigid structure would absorb all the energy, whilst the flexible one passes it onwards. So your steel box would be destroyed faster, and fall on you and kill you. A bendy structure would let the energy pass through, and stay upright enough to not crush you to death.

There are earthquake proof houses - the difficulty is _where_ the Earthquake hits. A box sitting on the sand at the sea shore can cope with a wave hitting it sideways, but coulnd't cope with a spout of water fountaining up under it and punching through. If you are sitting on top of it, nothing will save you.

There was a wonderful block of bendy flats built in California - and the earthquake literaly ruptured underneath it! It was built on four flexible pins, that would allow waves to pass through but not bring the structure down. Unfortunately, as it turned out, the epicentre was literaly underneath it, and all four legs were pushed out in different directions! So it collapsed utterly.

The earthquakes are the down side of San Fransisco! If it wasn't for them, and us having no money.... *sigh*! :-)

Morgan