Engineers inspecting Chile’s structures after the magnitude-8.8 earthquake that struck the nation’s midsection on Feb. 27 say Chile’s modern buildings are more robust than many equivalent buildings on the West Coast of the U.S. Even concrete frames under construction fared well in the second-strongest temblor on record, say seismic experts.
“It’s amazing how little structural damage there is on new buildings,” says Scott Nyseth, a principal in the Vancouver, Wash., office of Miyamoto International Inc. The amount of shear wall per sq ft of floor area is higher than “anywhere in the world,” he adds. In Chile from March 3-11, Nyseth put “safe to enter” tags on five buildings and a port facility in Concepción, near the epicenter, five in Santiago and four in nearby San Antonio.