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Japanese scientists seek quake secrets in Parthenon design
Athens (AFP) Aug 22, 2008 Japanese scientists will next month look into seismic resistance secrets in the design of the 2,500-year-old Parthenon which has withstood scores of quakes, a senior Greek archaeologist said on Friday. "The Parthenon had great resilience to earthquakes, as did most classical Greek temples," Maria Ioannidou, the archeologist in charge of conservation on the ancient Acropolis citadel where the Parthenon stands, told AFP. "The ancient Greeks apparently had very good knowledge of quake behaviour and excellent construction quality," she added. Toshikazu Hanazato, a professor of engineering at Japan's Mie University and an expert in post-quake reconstruction, heads the Japanese research team which is visiting Greece next month to study the famed marble temple. Both countries are very seismically active and the Japanese believe there are common elements between ancient Greek temples and their own monuments, Ioannidou said. The Parthenon has sustained significant damage in its long history but most of it was caused by man, not nature. The temple is partly built on solid rock but also has stone foundations going 12 metres (39 feet) deep and its walls were held together by metal joints coated in lead to prevent rust, Ioannidou said. It withstood a 373 BCE quake that destroyed the city of Elike in the Peloponnese and a subsequent 226 BC temblor that toppled the Colossus of Rhodes, the gigantic bronze statue numbered among the Seven Wonders of the ancient world. More recently, a 5.9-Richter earthquake in 1999 that killed 143 people around Athens shifted some of the Parthenon's architectural elements but caused no major damage. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Share This Article With Planet Earth
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Miami (AFP) Aug 21, 2008Florida Governor Charlie Crist has asked federal authorities to declare his state a disaster area after heavy rains dumped by Tropical Storm Fay, which lingered Thursday over the northern and eastern part of the state. |
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