6 story wood building survives test earthquake

corey.burger — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 20:00:23 +0000

Given we live in an earthquake-prone part of the world and have recently approved the construction of six story wood buildings, you would think it might be good to test whether or not these shiny new buildings, designed to make apartment buildings cheaper and thus more attractive to build, are going to survive the big one.

Thankfully, we are not the only people in the world with a hankering to learn this information. A team from NEESWood Project out of Colorado State University decided to build a six-story wood structure on a shake table in Japan and have a go. Take a peek:

More videos on the project site, including that of the big test. Of course, these little shakes, estimated to be a 7.5 magnitude, are a far cry from the Big One, estimated at 8 to 9 with shaking lasting into the minutes.

(Hat-tip to Wired and Gizmodo)

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6 story wood building survives test earthquake