Turkish Earthquake Deaths Were Preventable

TECTONICS

A woman picks up her goods from her collapsed house in downtown Bingol, 03 May 2003. At least 147 people were killed and more than 520 were injured during the strong earthquake in the southeastern Turkish city of Bingol official said. AFP photo by Tarik Tinazay.

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.

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TECTONICS

One Million Japanese Prepare For The "Big One"

Tokyo (AFP) Sep 01, 2005
More than one million people across earthquake-prone Japan took part in drills Thursday to prepare for disasters, with the annual event focusing on tsunamis in the wake of last year's Indian Ocean tragedy.

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