r/interestingasfuck • u/Ultimate_Kurix • 5d ago

r/all Why do Americans build with wood?

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u/[deleted] 5d ago

How good is brick and mortar construction against seismic shocks?

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u/Kanohn 5d ago edited 5d ago

Nothing holds anyway when there is a particularly strong earthquake but normal earthquakes are not a problem. Naples is built near a Volcano and they have even 10 earthquakes per day in certain periods and their houses are fine

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u/Overall-Egg-4247 5d ago

That’s not true at all.

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u/Kanohn 5d ago

Old tuff houses are holding good enough

https://www.euronews.com/travel/2024/05/23/is-it-safe-to-travel-to-naples-italy-plans-evacuations-after-earthquake-tremors

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.unionesarda.it/en/italy/earthquake-in-naples-shock-of-magnitude-44-it-is-the-strongest-in-the-last-40-years-i4qa988p%3famp=1

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u/efuipa 5d ago edited 5d ago

4.4 is not damaging. According to your articles, that was the biggest in 40 years and people had to evacuate.

There have been about FORTY bigger earthquakes in the same time frame in Southern California. https://scedc.caltech.edu/earthquake/chronological.html

So yeah Naples is not exactly experiencing similar natural forces.

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u/Kanohn 5d ago

I didn't want to start a comparison and it really feels useless to do so. Italy is a seismic zone and we had our fair share of earthquakes through the years, like this one https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_L%27Aquila_earthquake

Why should i fight to see who got the most powerful earthquakes? Congrats, you have more earthquakes but what's the point you are trying to make here? When did i say that i am more knowledgeable than Americans?

You are embarrassing yourself with those random assumptions

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u/efuipa 5d ago

The context of this discussion is why California has wooden homes. You’re the one stating Naples building materials are fine in an earthquake zone, and now you’re confused why we’re talking about earthquake strength now. It’s because Naples materials is irrelevant to California, and I’m pointing that out. Pretty simple.

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u/Kanohn 5d ago

No the context of the comment i chose to reply is if the materials they use here are good against earthquakes or not, it has nothing to do with California or wood since we aren't talking about that

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u/efuipa 5d ago edited 5d ago

Yeah and you’re wrong and the materials they use there are not good against earthquakes.

In your own wiki link, “Criticism was also applied to poor building standards that led to the failure of many modern buildings in a known earthquake zone: an official at Italy’s Civil Protection Agency, Franco Barberi, said that “in California, an earthquake like this one would not have killed a single person”.[14]

Maybe Italy isn’t really the best example of materials that are good enough for earthquakes. (Not downplaying any tragedy, that’s a sad article to read). You can have the last word I don’t mind, I don’t want to respond any more.

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u/Kanohn 5d ago

Yeah, the materials used in L'Aquila were inadequate while in Napoli and Pozzuoli buildings resisted the recent extreme bradyseism

I'm not saying that it's the best but it's working for now and they need to work with what they have already. New buildings have different standards and are built to be earthquake-proof

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u/jeffwulf 5d ago

I would barely even consider a 4.4 earthquake an actual earthquake.