Why did so many reinforced buildings with rebar in Turkey fail in Monday’s 7.7 earthquake?
In: 9
What rebar? All I see is powdered buildings.
Alot of countries outside North America are super corrupt, meaning rather than paying $100k to design the building up to code, they could just bribe someone for $10k to accept the design while turning a blind eye
Depending on exactly where the building was, the quakes did shake *some* of the buildings more than building code required. (50% gravity where code requires withstanding 40% gravity.)
However, many buildings did not suffer 40%+ gravity and their collapse means the buildings were not built to code or were older than the code.
In Syria, many of the buildings were also damaged by the Syrian Civil War and simply never completely repaired, which added to building collapses.
Because building codes in Turkey, if they’re even being strictly followed, weren’t updated until quite recently. Most buildings older than about 20 years aren’t reinforced with steel, so they can’t flex. [More info here.](https://www.npr.org/2023/02/07/1154816277/turkey-syria-earthquake-why-buildings-collapsed)
The quake was above the level that buildings were designed for or not up to code. Rebar adds strength to concrete but concrete is rigid so when the force exceeds this strength it breaks where the force is greatest, which is why you also see big pieces with exposed rebar.
The earthquake scale is logarithmic. That means M6 is 10 times stronger than M5 and 100 times stronger than M4. Turkey actually had 4 earthquakes in short time, two nearing 7 and two nearing 8.
Only the most reinforced buildings can survive a magnitude 8 earthquake. So the answer is that the earthquake was simply too strong.
Alot of countries outside North America are super corrupt, meaning rather than paying $100k to design the building up to code, they could just bribe someone for $10k to accept the design while turning a blind eye
What rebar? All I see is powdered buildings.
Depending on exactly where the building was, the quakes did shake *some* of the buildings more than building code required. (50% gravity where code requires withstanding 40% gravity.)
However, many buildings did not suffer 40%+ gravity and their collapse means the buildings were not built to code or were older than the code.
In Syria, many of the buildings were also damaged by the Syrian Civil War and simply never completely repaired, which added to building collapses.
Because building codes in Turkey, if they’re even being strictly followed, weren’t updated until quite recently. Most buildings older than about 20 years aren’t reinforced with steel, so they can’t flex. [More info here.](https://www.npr.org/2023/02/07/1154816277/turkey-syria-earthquake-why-buildings-collapsed)
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