lessons from the tragedy in haiti

[By SD]   I went to a very interesting seminar yesterday at Berkeley on the preliminary reconnaissance of the tragic Haiti Earthquake. You can watch the entire webcast on:

 http://peer.berkeley.edu/publications/haiti_2010/related_events_haiti.html.

You can find the photo collection of the speaker (Eduardo Fierro) at:

http://peer.berkeley.edu/publications/haiti_2010/images/haiti_photo_gallery_jan16/album/index.html

My overall impression was that:

1) This disaster was tragic, but unfortunately not unique. Similar to many developing countries, the tragedy was not caused by the earthquake, but by bad construction and related policies

2) We, as engineers, can help Haiti through grassroots actions, organizations, and networks, such as Build Change or GeoHazard International

tehran’s minor earthquake on saturday

Tehran experienced a minor earthquake (Richter magnitude 4) on Saturday at 2:23 pm local time (http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=205750). It seems that most Tehranies felt this shake. There is now a widespread fear of aftershocks and possibly bigger earthquakes due to more activities on the Eivanaki fault in southeast Tehran. Since information on the historical activity of this fault seems to be limited, it is difficult to make accurate probabilistic predictions on the likelihood of an aftershock. But it is certainly possible and quite likely to have another earthquake soon (not necessarily related to this particular fault movement). Tehran sits on major active faults and suffers from a large seismic risk due to fault activity, poor construction practice, and large population. The occurance of this recent minor earthquake may have influenced the stresses in the surrounding faults and might have increased the existing seismic risk facing Tehran.

 

Tehrani residents, engineers, contractors, general public, please be aware and pay attention to this important risk that you will have to deal with sooner or later. To learn how to protect yourself before, during, and after an earthquake, visit this site by FEMA: http://www.fema.gov/hazard/earthquake/index.shtm. 

In two of our previous posts, we also had some good discussion on earthquake preparedness in Tehran:

https://tehranshake.wordpress.com/2007/08/02/121/

https://tehranshake.wordpress.com/2007/08/28/what-to-do-before-during-and-after-an-earthquake/

Tehrani engineers, architects, and contractors: I assume that you already know how to make earthquake resistant structures in a cost-effective way. If you have questions/concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact me and I will try my best to send you information on the current state of practice (in structural and geotechnical design) for your specific project. If you are not convinced about the risks facing your city and need more information on the probability of earthquakes in the coming years, also please don’t hesitate to let me know or contact someone at IIEES in Tehran (http://www.iiees.ac.ir/). Keep in mind that you are responsible for your building, and negligence and lack of knowledge are not acceptable any more.

understanding earthquakes and effects

Great overview of our progress and current understanding of earthquakes since the 1906 great San Francisco earthquake:

tehran historic earthquakes

[By Shideh]   I read an interesting article by H. Hamzehloo, F. Vaccari, and G.F. Panza, “ Towards a reliable seismic microzonation in Tehran, Iran,” a few parts of which I am including below:

“Tehran, the capital of Iran, is located in a very high seismic zone at the foot of the Alborz Mountains, which is part of the Alpine-Himalayan seismic belt. The distribution of historical earthquakes around Tehran shows that the region has been experiencing eight large destructive earthquakes with magnitude greater than 7 from 4th B.C to 1830 (Ambraseys and Melville, 1982). These large historical earthquakes caused severe damage to Shahre Ray City, which is a part of Tehran city at present. The last large historical event was the 1830 earthquake with magnitude 7.1, which occurred approximately 100 km from the city. The closest historical event to the city was the 855 earthquake with magnitude 7.1.

children and earthquake safety

[By Shideh]  I came across an interesting presentation by IIEES’ (International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology) public education department in regards to earthquake safety and particularly children’s safety programs currently being developed in Iran:

http://www.iiees.ac.ir/English/Publicedu/school_safety_iran_case_study_davos.pdf 

 A few highlights: About 131,935 classrooms need to be reconstructed; 126,010 classrooms need to be strengthened; 39% of schools need to become safe… 

iran’s international conference on integrated natural disaster management – this february

Today, we received a message from one of the chairs of the 3^rd International Conference on Integrated Natural Disaster Management scheduled in Iran for this February (2008).  The main themes for the conference are: earthquakes, floods, droughts, landslides, and hurricanes.  UNICEF, the City of Tehran, IAEM, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, Shahid Beheshti University, York University, and Cranfield University are some of the sponsors of this conference. 

The deadline for submitting abstracts and papers is passed but you can still register and attend the conference.  If you have a paper that you’d like to submit, I personally suggest you send it even though the deadline’s past.  For more information: www.indm.org.  The image below is from their flash intro:

   

interested in earthquake engineering?

[By Shideh] For those interested in Earthquake Engineering: GEER (standing for GeoEngineering Earthquake Reconnaissance), a U.S. based organization aimed to document geotechnical engineering effects of important earthquakes and to advance research and practice in this field, has a great website with a collection of stunning photographs and detailed reconnaissance reports of the damage observed after major earthquakes around the world.  

http://gees.usc.edu/GEER/recent_geotechnical_engineering.htm 

… response to hooman’s comment

[By Shideh]  (See Hooman’s comment on the welcome page.) I agree with you that we should eventually start thinking of ways to implement solutions that we discuss. I think we should have a separate section where we can discus ideas only on implementing infrastructure related solutions alone.  The challenge is how to make our ideas heard by the people who make policies and those who make sure the law is in effect. I will write more about this soon, as I still need to learn much. This may also be a great topic for discussion. 

It is true that in finding and implementing our solutions, we should abandon the kind of thinking that has lead us to the current state of our country (at least for its infrastructure). One of the great problems that we face, I think, is lack of hope for our future and lack of confidence in our own capabilities.

recent earthquake in iran — what can we do to help?

[By Shideh] Today, on Monday 6/18/07 at nearly 6 p.m. (local time), a moderate earthquake (magnitude 5.5) shook Iran’s central desert.  The epicenter was about 150 km south of Tehran. http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2007dtaw.php). 

  

influence of people vs. policies

[By Shideh] It’s widely understood that many apartments and houses in Tehran were not built properly and are “me`mar saaz” (designed and built by non-engineers).  It seems most buildings in Tehran, even those designed by engineers according to the building codes, are not built properly due to poor supervision or corruption in the construction industry. 

What are Tehranians to do to prevent an unimaginable disaster resulting from an earthquake, which will come sooner or later?  Is this the responsibility of the authorities or is public awareness and action a more urgent factor? 

important link on tehran seismic risks

[By Shideh]

I found the following link helpful in learning about the risks that Tehran currently faces (please click on Tehran after opening the link).  This study is a disaster risk management profile prepared by the Earthquakes and Megacities Initiative (EMI) in August of 2005, which provides a summary of the current internal divisions, arrangements, and legislations/regulations, as well as the vulnerability issues within the mega-city of Tehran.  Additionally, it provides a summary of the existing disaster risk management arrangements for Tehran and the risks involved. http://www.pdc.org/emi/emihome.html;jsessionid=706C46482363EA0879BC15FCE8451EA0 

          

Iran political, seismicity, and seismic hazard maps (courtesy of USGS)