Disasters come in many shapes, sizes, and forms yet all are detrimental to people and structures of all types. The most terrifying of all disasters are natural disasters, the force of nature is rivaled by no man made disaster. One of the natural disasters that has terrorized as well as fascinated humans through out history is the earthquake. Most earthquakes are associated with areas such as Southern California or China, but the most detrimental aspect of disaster is the element of suprise. In this case areas such as Central North America and North Turkey have been visited by the violent shock of a mid-continent earthquake. These earthquakes are violent and cause mass amounts of structural damage and total destruction of many structures. Concrete being a very brittle material is affected greatly during an earthquake but through technology many advancements have been made to compensate for the damaging effects caused by an earthquake. This paper will discuss mid-continent earthquakes of the past, their effect on concrete structures, problems effecting concrete structures, and alternative materials and solutions to bypass those problems during future ea

Earthquakes with deformation, liquefaction of the soils, and ground shaking also have an impact on the regularity of concrete structures. Regularity deals with the distribution of load over the entire structure to maintain uniform soundness. Ground shaking and deformation can cause a sudden change in the stiffness, strength, or mass on either horizontal or vertical planes resulting in the redistribution of lateral loads. Irregularity results in setbacks of appendages, changes in story height or even the participation of nonstructural components. An example of this is the columns of tall building pounding on the roof of a shorter building. Strength and stiffness irregularities often result in torsional response. Torsion due to asymmetric failure of infill panels also contributes to building failures (Ghosh 1991).

Ghosh, S.K. "Observations on the behavior of reinforced concrete buildings during

Earthquakes bring about various problems as they shake their violent head. Ground shaking, liquefaction, and deformation top the list in damage to concrete structures. A sound concrete structure, being a small patio to a high rise building starts at the bottom with a sound sub-grade and sub-base. "Liquefaction , causes the soil to lose its ability to support weight and the building can sink or topple ( Reducing Losses 1995)." The other two factors, ground shaking and deformation have multiple affects on

structures are as follows: a. Beams should fail before columns:

Wright, James K. & Berg, Glen V. "Earthquakes and reinforced concrete"

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Approximate Word count = 2149
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)