Amazing video of 2011 magnitude 9.0 earthquake in Japan

I came across this interesting product for structural/geotechnical monitoring of cracks in 3 dimensions.  Most crack monitors are designed for monitoring in 2 dimensions, this one can measure movement out of the plane of monitoring.  […]

Nothing too exciting here, but geotechnical videos are kind of few and far between, so I like to share them. It looks like its some kind of anchored sheet pile wall.

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From the USGS Newsroom:

USGS scientist Ken Hudnut fills us in on how science created the theoretical magnitude 7.8 earthquake behind the Great Southern California ShakeOut—the largest earthquake preparedness drill in U.S. history, coming Nov. 13—and what such an earthquake would do to downtown Los Angeles.

Seems like they did it right wiith this study. They had multiple teams independenlty come up with the ground shaking model, then had different structural engineers who are experts in seismic design of large buildings review the tall buildings in the L.A. area for the design earthquake. They say that buildings would likely come down in the 7.8 magnitude event. Click through to watch the video interview from the USGS.

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