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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Shelter Conditions
Due to the number of displaced people from the Kumamoto earthquakes, Japan has to build more shelters. People are displaced due to collapsed houses and due to lack of utilities in areas. Many individuals were living in their cars, but due to the large number of aftershocks, that option is no longer safe. The shelters […]
Displaced residents of Kumamoto & Suspended operation of industrial facilities
Over 100,000 persons are displaced in emergency shelters after the two earthquakes that shook Kumamoto. Since the main two shocks (M6.2 and M7) there have been thousands of aftershocks in the region. The U.S. military has offered assistance and sent in over 50,000 troops to help with the emergency response. Over 250,000 people were told to leave […]
USGS Event Page
April 15, 2016 M7.0: https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us20005iis#executive April 14, 2016 M6.2: https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us20005hzn#executive