IN THE middle of the night I was woken by shutters banging against the window. Suddenly my bed began to sway, gently at first, but gradually increasing until it was shaking violently from side to side. No sooner had I grasped what was happening and tried to shelter under a table than the rocking subsided and everything went silent. It was my first earthquake.
Luckily, at a mere 6 on the Richter scale it was not strong enough to cause more than minor damage to the structures around me in Athens, Greece, let alone kill anyone. Last month, however, Haitians were not so fortunate, experiencing their worst quake in 200 years. Hundreds of thousands of people died, and most buildings within 20 kilometres of the epicentre were severely damaged or destroyed, including the presidential palace, UN headquarters and vast numbers of homes.
A month on, and engineers have travelled to the country to investigate the damage and try to learn from the experience. Engineers are key to preventing disasters of this scale, says at Imperial College London. 鈥淲e need to assume there will occasionally be earthquakes bigger than we are expecting. We cannot stop structures failing, but we can make sure that they fail safely,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e can pinpoint the damage in different parts of the structure 鈥� for example, the columns should not fail, let the beams fail instead. If the beams fail, people will have time to get out.鈥�
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That seems to be the consensus: protection not prediction. Given the complexity of tectonic plate activity, the prospect of developing technology that can predict the exact timing of an earthquake is remote, Sarma says. 鈥淲e can say 鈥榶es, there will be an earthquake, yes, it will be this big鈥�, but we can鈥檛 say when it will happen. The only prediction we can make is to look at the statistical probability of forces acting on structures, and then design buildings that do not fall down.鈥�
聯The prospect of developing technology to predict the exact timing of a quake is remote聰
So where can an aspiring engineer go to specialise? Sarma points to Imperial College London, where engineers are focusing their efforts above and below ground, studying soil mechanics to predict the behaviour of soils in earthquakes, and looking at the behavioural collapse of structures. And University College London is offering an MSc in .
If you prefer to study outside the capital, the has a strong shake table, says Sarma, where engineers can discover how models behave in a simulated earthquake. The University of Oxford also boasts a first-class earthquake research centre, and if you look deep underground at the University of Cambridge, you鈥檒l find the Turner centrifuge, the largest of its kind in the UK. This can accelerate payloads to 150g, allowing researchers to model loads and pressures experienced during quakes.
Global good
You don鈥檛 even need to stick to one university: the UK鈥檚 top earthquake research centres at the universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Bristol are more than willing to share. With help from the , the three universities have set up a collaboration to share facilities and data. This year, with funding from the European Commission, they have joined with a host of other universities and research institutions to form a project called Seismic Engineering Research Infrastructures for European Synergies (SERIES).
Connected via grid systems and cloud computing to collate data in real time, SERIES research sites will be able to pool information and participate in common experiments across Europe. 鈥淭he idea is to harness their combined capabilities to test something larger than could be dealt with in a single lab,鈥� says , professor of engineering at the University of Oxford.
If you prefer industry to academia, engineers are desperately needed by nuclear plants, says Sarma, because any damage there could be catastrophic. Less safety-critical wind farms need earthquake engineers too, says , head of the Earthquake and People Interaction Centre at University College London.
So can any engineer turn their hand to earthquake studies? Yes, but it helps to be familiar with the specialist software that explores the non-linear processes that set in when buildings are stressed way beyond normal, says Rossetto. Lectures, conferences and the networking opportunities they afford will also help an engineer interested in earthquake research: check conferences run by the . Other organisations such as , a disaster relief charity, and offer advice and opportunities to help with research projects abroad.
If getting your hands dirty appeals, you might want to follow Rossetto and join the , which is operated through the and organises field missions for earthquake engineers and students. 鈥淲hen an earthquake happens,鈥� says Rossetto, 鈥測ou can apply to be part of the team. The committee decides who goes based on experience, language requirements and specialisms needed.鈥�
The team looks at a wide variety of variables, including the number of people involved in an earthquake, the geology of the area, historical seismicity, data on magnitude, the structural behaviour of engineered and non-engineered buildings, and how the foundations of buildings perform. 鈥淲e also link up with local institutions that guide us around the area and use satellite information to see where the major damage has occurred,鈥� says Rossetto.
Sadly, the team鈥檚 findings often highlight the fact that structures have not met local building regulations. Both Sarma and Rossetto have seen the damage caused by bad construction. 鈥淭he buildings are designed to be safe by engineers, but the construction just doesn鈥檛 follow the design. They cut corners or don鈥檛 think certain bits are necessary,鈥� says Sarma. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not just in developing countries, it happens all over.鈥�
If you feel passionately about this aspect of quake prevention, a policy role in government or in an NGO may be for you. 鈥淎s an engineer you can turn your knowledge into policy to help enforce building laws to ensure that people build to the design,鈥� says Sarma.
But earthquake safety is not all about engineering, says Rossetto. 鈥淎fter earthquake disasters, everyone says it鈥檚 the buildings that kill people. While this is true, it鈥檚 also the precautions people take which determine whether they survive or not.鈥� After many missions to earthquake zones, Rossetto was surprised to discover that while many inhabitants have little confidence in the integrity of the buildings around them, they do little to protect themselves. She is now trying to identify some of the psychological drivers behind this inertia. Teaming up with psychologists, Rossetto is exploring how to design buildings to fit how people really behave when earthquakes occur. 鈥淚f people are more likely to run to the stairwell than hide under a table like they鈥檝e been told, then maybe we strengthen the stairwell,鈥� she says.
Talking to other disciplines is the new direction for earthquake engineers, says Rossetto. 鈥淵ou might have to collaborate with a psychologist or a meteorologist, but the way to succeed is having the openness and humility to accept help,鈥� she says.
