Earthquake Engineering Research Institute
Learning From Earthquakes

Observations from the EERI/ISSS Social Science and Government Inspection Team

    Figure 1. US EERI Social Science Team in Rikuzen Takada, June 21, 2011 (Photo by H. Chen). Team Members: Prof. Stephanie Chang, University of British Columbia, UBC Centre for Human Settlements (Team Lead) Prof. Daniel Aldrich, Purdue University Ms. Rochelle Brittingham, Graduate Research Assistant, University of Delaware, Disaster Research Center Mr. Richard Eisner, […]

Social media mobilizes for homeless earthquake victims in Van

A campaign that journalist Ahmet Tezcan introduced on his Twitter account to provide accommodation for those who lost their homes to Sunday’s earthquake in Van has created a great impact on social media in Turkey, with many people seeking to lend help. After the earthquake struck the eastern province of Van on Sunday, many campaigns […]

October 28th Observations from Van

As a not very atypical example, his building at beginning appear to have only non-structural damage. But it came out that there is a heavy stair damage with a loss of about 50% of the section. Such type of damages with no clear sign from outside, but with seriously impaired members inside creates a difficult situation for  street type […]

Main Problem: Fundamentally Flawed Structural Designs

The area has seen a boom in building construction in the last decade, and it is obvious that they had pushed beyond the limits of conventional practice into the realm of improperly engineered and structurally flawed designs. The mistakes are fundamental and obvious. The typical mistakes are soft story, torsion, inadequate lateral strength. Captive column mistake also exists, but at much lesser […]

Initial EERI Response to M6.4 Earthquake in Taiwan on February 6, 2016

    Figure 1. Tainan, Taiwan (Reuters photo).     EERI is currently monitoring the situation from media reports and notes from colleagues in the impacted region as part of its Learning from Earthquakes Program. For current and timely information about the earthquake, including links to the USGS event page, World Housing reports, media reports, and information […]

EERI Taiwan Earthquake Reconnaissance Briefing Webinar April 19

During this free event, reconnaissance teams that traveled to Taiwan to study the February 6, 2016, earthquake will present their observations. Briefing content will be a collaboration from more than five teams that traveled to the impacted region, and will provide key insights into the various aspects of shaking characteristics, earthquake damage, response, and performance […]

Report of the Emilia-Romagna-Modena earthquake the May 29th 2012

The 29th of May of 2012, an earthquake occurred in the North of Italy at 09:00:03 local time (07:00:03 UTC time) in the Region of Emilia-Romagna (Modena). According to the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV – http://www.ingv.it/) the magnitude of the event was Mw 5.8 and the hypocentral depth 10.2 km. The earthquake occurred at […]

M8.2 Iquique, Chile Earthquake and Tsunami: Preliminary Reconnaissance Observations

The EERI Learning from Earthquakes (LFE) Committee, led by chair Ken Elwood (M. EERI, 1994), reached out to colleagues in Chile to compile this article for the EERI membership that summarizes their initial observations from the April 1, 2014, M8.2 earthquake and tsunami. On April 1, 2014 at 20:46:50 local time (23:46:50 UTC), a Mw8.2 megathrust […]