Experts puzzled over bizarre quakes in Spain - no buildings should have fallen, and no deaths
Posted by
JAC on 5/12/2011, 9:18 pm
May 12, 2011 - LORCA, SP
The buildings which collapsed during the double earthquake that killed eight people in Spain should never have fallen down in earthquake of that magnitude, experts have claimed.
Up to 15,000 people have been left homeless in the southeastern city of Lorca after Spain's most destructive earthquakes in 50 years.
However, Luis Eugenio Suarez, the president of the Spanish Geological Association, told Italian publication Publico Online that a 5.2 magnitude earthquake "should not have claimed any victims" and that the buildings in Lorca "should not have fallen down."
He said: "Murcia, Andalucia and the Levante are areas of seismic risk.
So they should have been prepared.
An earthquake of 5.2 is not sufficiently intense to collapse buildings."
Buildings may have been more likely to fall if they had sustained previous damage.
Thousands of people camped outside overnight in the southeastern Spanish city of Lorca in fear of further tremor.
One group of four evacuees sat on fold-up chairs in the early hours, unable to sleep.
As they escaped their damaged building they had seen the corpses of three people outside killed by falling bricks.
I was scared to death," said one elderly woman who declined to give her name.
The stronger tremor, which did most of the damage, struck at 6:47pm (1647 GMT) with a depth of six miles and could be felt as far away as the capital Madrid.
It hit nearly two hours after a smaller 4.4-magnitude quake.
-Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/8508926/Spain-earthquake-buildings-should-not-have-collapsed-experts-claim.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EP07HQpJ_I&feature=player_embedded
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Experts puzzled over bizarre quakes in Spain - no buildings should have fallen, and no deaths - JAC, 5/12/2011, 9:18 pm Post A Reply
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