Why did so many reinforced buildings with rebar in Turkey fail in Monday’s 7.7 earthquake?
In: 9
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.
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