Wow! High-Rise Buildings in Tokyo Sway During Earthquake!

[onehandle]

Run time: 00:45 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhJzdtzl6KY   Posted on YouTube: March 11, 2011 By YouTube Member: escot2008 Views on YouTube: 44575   Posted on DU: March 11, 2011 By DU Member: onehandle Views on DU: 2909

 

[Posteritatis]

1. That they can do that and still be there generally intact is really impressive. (nt)

[Hosnon]

3. No kidding. Major credit to the gains made in architecture to "earthquake-proof" buildings. nt.

[Buddyblazon]

17. A rigid structure would have crumbled...

the ability to move (the correct way...not like a foundation built on expansive soil) is a good thing.

[Charleston Chew]

2. WOW!

This is something I could see on Good Morning America or The Today Show.

D-E-M-O-C-R-A-T-I-C

U-N-D-E-R-G-R-O-U-N-D

[ixion]

4. they were built that way, with just such an event in mind

I'll bet the engineers are happy today, knowing their design worked under real conditions. :woohoo:

[rurallib]

13. They have been planning for something like this for 50+ years IIRC

Imagine what this would have been like had they not.
A community effort.
Here in the US it's everyone for themselves so we would never do that.

[Cleita]

5. They are built that way.

There are rollers on the foundations that allow the building to sway, keeping it intact, or so goes the theory. No one I have talked to about this kind of architecture has an answer about what happens to the furniture and people inside the buildings while it's swaying. :silly:

[Lochloosa]

7. Whatever happens inside it's better than falling over.

:evilgrin:

[AtheistCrusader]

10. Not much happens inside.

Contents tend to move with the building. The amplitude of the shaking would have to be VERY high indeed to toss the interior contents around. Probably high enough to seriously risk the destruction of the building anyway.

These buildings flex and sway all the time under wind load too, to a degree. The Columbia Tower has a pendulum on the cieling of the top machinery floor, so you can see the movement.

[Beaverhausen]

14. right- I work in a 5 story building that is built to sway in earthquakes

I work on the top floor and can attest that even in a small building, we sway. I get dizzy from even a small shaker. But I'm glad it does it.

[Lochloosa]

6. Spherical Sliding Bearings

[avaistheone1]

8. Amazing footage.

Thank God for advances in engineering.

[Enthusiast]

9. OMG!

Scary!

[Iliyah]

11. I hope

Los Angeles is prepared. What amazing technology.

[riverwalker]

12. that gave me goosebumps...n/t

[demodonkey]

15. A friend of mine once played the piano at Windows on the World, top of the WTC in NYC...

...my friend didn't do this, but as I recall some who were on staff at the Restaurant told us that they snuck into the WTC Tower 1 before Hurricane Gloria made landfall (it was evacuated for the hurricane) and went up to Windows in time to be there when it hit.

Gloria was kind of a fizzlecane (was supposed to be a Cat 4 or 5 and direct hit on Manhattan, but went east and was much weaker) but it still brought some big winds.

I remember these folks saying said they were in the restaurant on floor 110 during landfall and they could feel the World Trade Center tower swaying like being on a boat.

[penndragon69]

16. Oyvey!

That would have been something if it had hit when i was staying in my 54th floor hotel
room back in "09".
Talk about a vomit comet!

[tpsbmam]

18. Thom Hartmann noted today that the Japanese have some of the toughest

building codes around sans loopholes and exceptions. That has tons to do with the relative lack of damage and fatalities in an historic level earthquake.

[somone]

20. There cannot be loopholes and exceptions

otherwise a weak building will fall and destroy a good one

[Charleston Chew]

19. Stop the Corporate Takeover of the Media

__________
Sen. Al Franken (D.-Minn.) told more than 2,000 bloggers and organizers attending the Netroots Nation conference in Las Vegas on July 24, 2010, that our media system is at risk everywhere we turn - from our free speech online to the growing power of companies who own a massive number of media outlets.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x489357
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