Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Small Italian earthquake with big consequences





This is the standard earthquake that is expected all the time along the spine of Italy.  The PGV was probably 20 cm/s, which any rugged building should survive.  But all the buildings here are piles of rocks.  Thus is the consequence of no seismic capacity.  Such beautiful, ancient towns, no chance to knock them all down and put up something with the more 'normal' capacity of 50 cm/s.

We'll continue to see this every few years.  The above plot of 'estimated fatalities' takes into account the construction.


No comments: