"ON THE MOVE"

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 235, 5 October 1942, Page 4

"ON THE MOVE"

SHAKEN BUILDINGS

WELLINGTON EXPERIENCE

(0.C.) WELLINGTON, this day. Officers of the Wellington City Council whose duty it has been to Inspect buildings for earthquake damage say they have no doubt whatever that as the result of the JPr a ?.Y minor shakes and tremors Wellington has been subjected to since the last big 'quake on August 2 many damaged buildings are "on the move." They tell cases where cracks in buildings, from being mere tracings in the brickwork, have become half an inch or more in width; and, conversely, they instance places where cracks up to an inch in width have closed up. There was one remarkable instance of how stresses in buildings work. In one of the city council's own properties there was a long oblique crack in the side of the building, which for a week or two after August 2 was over an inch in width. One day this was examined again and it was found that the crack had closed up almost completely. Such had the stress been that another crack in the same section had appeared, and it was the opening of this second crack which had caused the first one to close.

"The damaged buildings are working all the time," said an expert. "We know that, and so do most of the architects who have to do with earthquake repair jobs. People regard the many little shakes we have had since the big ones as merely settling down," he said, "but each of those tremors may have an effect on a building already wrenched by a big shock, so I expect that we will be finding faults in buildings for months to come that probably do not exist to-day. These will be due to the change in the thrust of the stress as each tremor works on an already shaken structure."