why are doorways the safest place to stand in an earthquake?
In: Engineering
The most common danger in an earthquake is falling objects and other things like broken glass that can go flying, and a doorway doesn’t protect you from either of those necessarily. They’re definitely a little bit reinforced and they aren’t usually near objects on the ceiling that can fall, but overall you still want to find the heaviest and sturdiest piece of furniture that you can fit under and stick there to avoid being hit by other objects.
The doorway idea might come from pictures of serious earthquakes where a house has collapsed but the doorframe is still standing, but the doorframe being left standing is far from a guarantee and that’s something that would only be happening in the worst-case scenario anyways.
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