Last Sunday’s 6.0-magnitude earthquake that struck the Napa region of Northern California was the strongest the area has seen in 25 years. The quake was so strong, in fact, that it woke many in the region — as we learned from a sudden change in the sleeping patterns of people nearby, thanks to data collected by Jawbone UP fitness trackers.
Continue reading… “Jawbone data reveals how many Up users were woken up by the Napa earthquake”
One World Trade Center
Architects will find out if the tallest building in America really is 1,776 feet tall, in a few weeks. One World Trade Center technically soars to that height, but about 408 feet of it isn’t building but “spire.” The arbiter of tall buildings, the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, has yet to decide whether that’s going to count.
Continue reading… “How tall will physics allow us to build skyscrapers?”
The temporary cathedral in New Zealand will use cardboard tubes, as shown in this scale model.
A New Zealand landmark that was destroyed in a natural disaster earlier this year will be resurrected using cardboard.
Continue reading… “Massive New Zealand cathedral to be rebuilt with cardboard”
An elderly woman cries in the devastated town of Rikuzentakata in Iwate prefecture.
There are events in history that sear themselves into the world’s collective imagination, and enter the realm where myth meets heartbreaking reality.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4dD6tbLBsc[/youtube]
Raw, actual footage from a dashboard camera driving along a beach road as the tsunami hit Japan. You can see the wave hitting the windshield and car being carried away in the wave.
Continue reading… “Tsunami Caught on Dashboard Camera as it Hits Car”
The shores of Acapulco’s beaches were this weekend teeming with masses of fish packed so tightly they looked like an oil slick from above. (Pics)
Iranian women outside a shopping mall in Tehran.
Women who dress “inappropriately” incite extramarital sex that in turn cause more earthquakes, a senior Iranian hard-line cleric has claimed. Attractive women who snub traditional Islamic clothing to instead wear fashionable clothes and apply heavy make-up, caused youths in the country to “go astray” and have affairs, Ayatollah Kazem Sedighi said.
Continue reading… “Women Who Incite Extramarital Sex ‘Cause More Earthquakes’ Claims Iranian Cleric”
Earthquake survivors cook on a makeshift stove in front of their demolished homes
On April 14th, residents of China’s remote Yushu County, located on the Tibetan plateau, were awoken by a magnitude 6.9 earthquake. In the sparsely populated villages and the larger town of Gyegu, thousands of wood-earth buildings collapsed and many larger structured heavily damaged or destroyed. The region is difficult to reach for the response teams of the Chinese government outside aid groups – lying at an elevation of 3,700m (12,000 ft) and connected by few roads, most of which were damaged in the quake. Chinese state media now says the death toll has risen to 1,144. Rescuers continue to search for survivors as homeless residents work to recover what they can and set up shelter from the freezing overnight temperatures. (35 photos)
Continue reading… “Earthquake in Tibet – Amazing Photo Gallery”
Heart stents are delivered into the body using nickel titanium but the diameter of the wire is too thick to go into the brain, so iron alloy will be the answer
Researchers in Japan have designed a super-elastic iron alloy which they hope can be used in sophisticated heart and brain surgeries and even buildings in earthquake zones.
Continue reading… “Researchers Design Super-Elastic Iron for Surgeries, Buildings”
The US Geological Survey has said that California has a 99.7% chance of having a magnitude 6.7 earthquake — or bigger — in the next three decades. University of California, Berkeley Professor and former Architecture Department Chair Mary Comerio says that, “California is probably the best-prepared place in the world,” but there are still preventative measures to be taken.
Continue reading… “Architects Tell Californians to Brace for the Next Big Earthquake”
A destroyed building in Concepcion, Chile.
According to a recent study done by Chilean and American researchers at the Ohio State University, the magnitude-8.8 earthquake that rocked the west coast of Chile on February 27th was strong enough to move the city of Concepcion at least 10 feet/3.04m to the west and the capital, Santiago, about 11 inches/28cm to the west-southwest. The quake also shifted other parts of South America, as far apart as the Falkland Islands and Fortaleza, Brazil.
Continue reading… “Chile Earthquake Moves Concepcion More Than 10 Feet to the West”
A house damaged in the 1994 Northridge quake. Most homeowner are not covered by quake insurance.
Yves Didier has been a strong believer in earthquake insurance since the 1994 Northridge quake, when his apartment building was severely damaged and some of his neighbors lost their lives. He didn’t hesitate to pay as much as $2,500 a year for coverage after he purchased a three-bedroom house in Reseda in 1999. He said he’s never missed a payment and (thankfully) never had to make a claim.
