Earthquake effect on Buildings.
Earthquake strength is measured according to the Richter scale, from 1 to 10.
Scale 1 to 5 usually dont cause any damage to buildings except for a few wall plaster chip offs, a few window glasses cracked. Its mostly felt in the upper floors of a building.
Scale 5 earthquake will cause significant damage and will unsettle and rattle furniture withing the building.
Scale 6 earthquake is especially fatal where it comes to buildings constructed several storeys high in a densely populated area with low enforcement of building standards by County/Local Authority planning departments eg Kayole, Mathare North areas of Nairobi.
Last year, August 2018, a magnitude 6.9 earthquake hit Lombok, Indonesia and caused a fatality of over 400. This was after another magnitude 6.4 earthquake in the same area a week before.
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/08/13/asia/lombok-earthquake-intl/index.html
Aftershock earthquakes usually follow the 1st one within a couple of days and in some instances like in the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami earthquake, 2 years.
1928 Magnitude 6.9 earthquake, Subukia, Kenya.
The 1928 Magnitude 6.9 earthquake in Subukia nearly 100 years ago is the largest to have affected Kenya in recent times. It was followed by a Magnitude 6.0 earthquake 4 days later in the same area.
Luckily, there were few high rise buildings in the region hence minimal injuries if any. A similar quake if it were to happen in the current times will cause a major catastrophe in Nakuru and Naivasha towns, where building construction for high rise apartments is not as regulated by local authorities to ensure quality standards are followed.
Magnitude 7 and above earthquakes usually cause ammagedon-like fatalities especially in towns where the County /Local Governments have been lax to ensure quality of buildings standards are followed.
The 2010 Haiti Magnitude 7.0 earthquake had a fatality of over 300,000 people.
https://www.britannica.com/event/Haiti-earthquake-of-2010
The initial earthquake was Magnitude 7.0 then it was followed by 2 aftershocks of 5.9 and 5.5 a few days later.
The Sumatra, Indonesia 2004 magnitude 9.1 earthquake Tsunami had a fatality of over 200,000 people.
Architect Francis Gichuhi Kamau.
0721410684
info@a4architect.com
Leave a Reply