Earthquakes

[ataribeats]

Is it relevant to memorize the historic earthquakes, locations, magnitudes, and dates?

[megara22]

Good god I hope not. There is so much content to cover for this exam that I’m planning to leave out this as well as structural significant engineers and buildings. Even if there is a question on each, I’m willing to risk it. My mind is exploding with everything to know for this exam, most of which is unfamiliar to me in my daily practice.

[ataribeats]

lol
I think you are right! I was just wondering since it is mentioned everywhere.

[Coach]

Megara is right; however, you should know the significance of the 1933 Long Beach quake and to a lesser degree, the 94 Northridge and 89 Loma Pieta quakes.

These resulted in significant code changes, especially Long Beach.

Also look up Triangle Shirtwaist fire. It's responsible for many life safety code issues we have today.

I consider these to fall under history items on the exam. A quick read is all you need. Spending 30 minutes could get you a point or two. More importantly, you should at least be aware of these events as an architect.

[jdunks]

Thanks Coach. Thought I'd share this from a wikispaces article about Loma Prieta: "The key lessons learned were that unreinforced masonry buildings pose a high threat as well as the importance of seismic rehabilitation to pre-seismic code structures. The number of soft story collapses in residences primarily of the row-house with garage on lower level type lead to a call for seismic rehabilitation and reinforcement laws. The minimal damage to engineered buildings reinforced the importance of seismic building codes and exposed the need to expanded requirements on other building types". I also read that some if the URM's had actually been retrofitted, and the retrofits failed.

[ataribeats]

Excellent! Thanks everybody