This House Can Stand Up to Even the Toughest Earthquake
Over here on the West Coast, earthquakes are just a fact of life, but for some of us newbies who may have moved from the East Coast, the thought of the earth shaking beneath us is pretty terrifying. To combat the damage that earthquakes can cause, engineers at Stanford have built and tested an earthquake resistant house.
The results are extremely impressive. This house stayed upright even as it experienced tremors three times the intensity of the 1989 quake that hit California hard. The secret is a new technique using sliding “isolators” that let the house skate over the ground instead of collapsing.
Other features of the house include super strong walls leading to little, if any, damage after the quake passes through. Earthquakes may not bring down houses all the time, but they can still do a substantial amount of damage that could affect the integrity of the structure later on, causing potential injuries.
The best thing about the discoveries? The adjustments are relatively cheap, and could easily be incorporated into new homes. The trick of isolating the house from the ground is pretty, dare we say it, groundbreaking. We’re excited to see whether this new building technique will catch on and potentially eliminate the fear of earthquakes for good.
What do you think of this project? Would you live in an earthquake-proof house? Tell us in the comments below!
