Earthquake Proof Buildings

Technology designed to keep buildings from collapsing works essentially in two ways: By making buildings stronger, or by making them more flexible, so they sway and slide above the shaking ground rather than crumbling.The latter technology employs an idea called "base isolation."For about 30 years, engineers have constructed skyscrapers that float on systems of ball bearings, springs and padded cylinders. They don't sit directly on the ground, so they're protected from some earthquake shocks. In the event of a major earthquake, they sway up to a few feet. The buildings are surrounded by "moats," or buffer zones, so they don't swing into other structures."You actually take the foundation of building and you put it either on almost like springs or on a mechanism so it is allowed to move a little bit with the earthquake," said Armstrong of the building code council.Well-designed buildings with base-isolation systems ensure that no lives will be lost, no matter the strength of an earthquake, said Michael Constantinou, a professor of civil engineering at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York.More difficult than perfecting the technology, he said, is figuring out how large of an earthquake will hit a certain area.