School buildings still vulnerable in Kumamoto
Schools have been slow to re-open after the two large shaking events in Kumamoto. Originally over 2/3 of the school buildings in the region were closed following the strong shaking. Many schools have been turned into emergency shelters for the public therefore limiting the amount of space within the school to operate. In addition, school evaluations took […]
Overview of Damage to Roads and Bridges in Nishihara Area
Overview of Nishihara Area Nishihara area is located 10km northeast from Mashiki town and faces Minami-Aso village on its east end. The area is located on the Futagawa fault zone which showed slips around 2m at the ground surface (right strike-slip fault) [1]. The activity of the Futagawa fault caused severe damage to roads and […]
The 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake: Overview of damage to roads and bridges
Overview of damage investigations conducted after the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake Damage investigations that have been conducted after the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake are listed below in chronological order. Key words and points are listed after each investigation to help direct readers to reports of interest. 04/14/2016 9:26pm: The “foreshock” 04/15/2016 Hata: Damage to houses and roads […]
Overview of Damage to Reinforced Concrete Buildings in Kumamoto
Emrah Tasdemir and Nicole Paul will be co-curators for the Reinforced Concrete Buildings topic on the Kumamoto Japan Earthquake Virtual Clearinghouse. Emrah Tasdemir is a PhD student at North Carolina State University. Nicole Paul works for the Advanced Technology + Research (AT+R) group at Arup in San Francisco as a Structural Analyst. Overview Based off of […]
Kumamoto Damage Extent by Google Earth 3D
“Google Earth has updated the 3D imagery for part of Kumamoto with imagery captured after the event. The extent of the damage to buildings is clear because the roofs have been patched with light blue tarpaulin that is highly visible.” (Google Earth Blog) Google Earth has also created a tour of the area showing all […]
Existing housing stock in Japan and past performance during earthquakes
Much of the existing housing stock in Japan is wooden. According to the World Housing Encyclopedia, in 1993, 68.1% of housing units were wooden, but this has decreased with newer construction. Much of the existing housing stock is load-bearing timber frame post and beam construction. Lateral loads are resisted by shear walls. Diagonal bracing is uncommon […]
Overview of Damage to Housing
On April 14, 2016, an M6.2 earthquake occurred near Ueki, Japan, followed by an M7.0 in the early hours of April 15, 2016 near Kumamoto-shi, Japan. There have been numerous aftershocks. Figure 1. The town of Mashiki, 15 km from Kumamoto city, was hit hard by the M6.2, with reports of 9 dead and […]
Collapse of 1700-Year-Old Aso Shrine
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Ground motions of the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake
Overview of the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake The 2016 Kumamoto earthquake caused severe damage to Kumamoto area, Japan. Due to the shallow depth of epicenter, the particularly severe damage was caused in Mashiki town located 10km away from Kumamoto city. The earthquake consists of two strong ground motions (9:26pmJST on 4/14 and 1:25amJST on 4/16) and a […]
Failure of Historic Kumamoto Castle Walls
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