EARTHQUAKE RISK

Evening Post, Issue 20, 23 July 1935, Page 14

EARTHQUAKE RISK

INDIAN PRECAUTIONS India has learned its lesson from the various earthquakes with which it has been visited, and in the future will pay close attention to the architecture of its buildings. Dr. J. Alexander Dunn, of the Geological Survey of India, speaking last evening, to members of the Wellington Philosophical Society, detailed various features of buildings which, it was hoped, would be eliminated. Ornamental structures, he said, were what they wanted to go out — it was suicidal to build them. The simpler the structure the better for an earthquake region. Bay windows, lintels, arches, cornices —all would have to go. Many people had the idea, said Dr. Dunn, that damage was suffered in India because of the poor construction, but that was not so —some of the buildings were very well constructed. The native huts were the least damaged in the BiharNepal earthquake last year, the mud huts fared moderately well, but it was mainly the well-built structures put up by the Public Works Department that suffered the most. Concrete bridges .were useless; they simply collapsed. The type.for use was the screw-pile type, which would twist and, buckle, but over which it was still possible to drive after a shock. Piles were not ;• advocated, and. reinforced concrete was worse than useless unless it was on proper foundations. It it were not. built on a solid grounding it just collapsed and there was no salvage.