Submitted by jill on Tue, 12/29/2009 - 00:00
More than a million earthquakes worldwide occur
each year. That’s about two earthquakes a minute. More than 900 of
those are potentially damaging (magnitude 5 or greater) earthquakes.
With OpenHazards.com tools, you can learn more about where those damaging earthquakes are likely to strike, and make decisions about whether and how to prepare.
Submitted by jill on Tue, 12/22/2009 - 00:00
Data collection, storage and retrieval are vital
functions of any modern business, large or small. In the United States,
99% of roughly 29.6 million businesses are small firms (fewer than 500
employees). We would expect that most of the country’s 18,000 large
corporations to have hardened data facilities with bullet-proof
business continuity plans – and given the high level of reliance on
data integrity, that small businesses would follow suit. But that’s not
necessarily the case. For example, Symantec recently published the
Submitted by jill on Sat, 12/19/2009 - 00:00
The Open Hazards Group accurately predicted the damaging earthquake
that struck Taiwan Saturday evening at 9:02 pm. A screen shot of the
forecast shows the openhazards.com forecast details. The contour plot
shows earthquake probability and the blue marker depicts the epicenter
of the actual quake. The forecast was posted to our website before the
earthquake occurred. An aftershock forecast will be available on our
website after midnight California time when our site updates worldwide
forecasting.
Submitted by jill on Sat, 12/19/2009 - 00:00
Here's our first update on the December 19, 2009
Taiwan earthquake: OpenHazards Group, Inc. has translated reports from
the China Times, which features excerpts from other Chinese newspapers.
Submitted by jill on Fri, 11/20/2009 - 00:00
What do most modern motorcycles, cars, highway signs, some tall
buildings, domed arenas and modernist style industrial and commercial
buildings have in common? The space frame: a lightweight,
rigid frame made of interlocking bars or rods (struts). Arranged in a
geometric pattern, the struts in a space frame building provide
stability, strength and resistance to rotation or movement due to
external forces such as strong wind or ground motion.
Submitted by jill on Thu, 11/19/2009 - 00:00
An unreinforced masonry (URM) bearing wall
is a URM wall that provides vertical support for the floor or roof of a
structure. URM buildings are not strengthened (reinforced) with
embedded steel bars, which makes them extremely hazardous in
seismically active regions. Materials used in these kinds of buildings
are generally unreinforced adobe, clay, concrete or concrete block,
brick, or rubble. These buildings are popular all over the world, even
though they tend to collapse in strong earthquakes.
Submitted by jill on Wed, 11/18/2009 - 00:00
A bearing shear wall is another term used by structural engineers and builders to describe a type of wall, or actually a wall system designed to provide strength to a building by transferring stress to the foundation.
Submitted by jill on Tue, 11/17/2009 - 00:00
This blog is a continuing discussion about building types, and how they respond to earthquakes. Today’s blog is about tilt up buildings. (Once all the most common building types are explained, I’ll move on to translating peak ground acceleration and “g” forces, and the term probability.)
What’s a tilt up?
Submitted by jill on Mon, 11/16/2009 - 00:00
What type of building do you live in? work in? play in? If your
children are in school or college, what kind of building types do they
take classes, or live in? Occupied with the business of living, you
probably don’t think much about the strength or safety of the walls
that surround you or the roof overhead. But knowing a little more about
the structures you spend your time in could benefit you in all kinds of
ways – and maybe even save your life. Let's start with "wood-frame"
construction.
Submitted by jill on Fri, 11/13/2009 - 00:00
I grew up in earthquake country – otherwise known as the Los Angeles
greater metropolitan region – and lived through dozens of “felt”
earthquakes. Before the magnitude 6.7 Sylmar (San Fernando, CA)
earthquake of 1971, I thought earthquakes were kind of fun. Of course,
I was still a teenager, and thought I was invincible. A little “jiggle”
now and then made life a little spicier, and no real damage occurred
from the mild, infrequent events spanning most of the 1940s, 1950s, and
1960s.
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