Why are there glass skyscrapers in earthquake territory?
In San Francisco, the Salesforces building has many glass windows. Won’t the glass break during an earthquake and fall on pedestrians on the street. Do engineers expect the glass not to break during an earthquake?
In: 5
Not all glass is made equal.
Glass in skyscrapers built in the 1980s will likely all fly off buildings in a large earthquake, killing pedestrians below. But modern skyscraper glass is engineered with flex and impact resistance, more like windshield glass. But unlike windshields, it isn’t mounted in a way that it will pop out: instead, it will stay seated and flex with the building.
Also, buildings are designed to sway with a quake, so it would take a very particular kind of quake to unseat or shatter the glass in a modern skyscraper.
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