Do you have any idea how many would die if 13,000 tower blocks suffered catastrophic collapse? Basically 'earthquake proof' buildings round the world are designed for a magnitude 7.8 at the worst - but if they do fall over at least they don't disintegrate. Look at the Taiwan death toll - only 2,000 deaths out of 13,000 tower block 'collapses', with dozens or hundreds of people within each.
Plus you realise when a building keels over, and disintegrates (catastrophic collapse), the 'footprint' of destruction is far greater, burying whole streets. In earthquakes tall buildings often collapse due to the sway (keeling over), not pancaking down into one neat square (ie 911).
eg: The footprint of collapse is the same if not larger
http://img.dailymail.co.uk
-And it wasn't graft on the Shanghai building, the workers were excavating the garage block and unknowingly piled the earth near the building, although the foreman disliked it. This lead to the foundations shifting (Shanghai is built on clay) - it was mystery why the building keeled over till weeks later, very few people could predict the earth would shift so easily.
Back to subject if some kind of random quake did strike Singapore, and depending on the frequency, reclaimed land acts like water, known as liquifaction - hence people seeing streets rolling in land waves, and buildings sinking into the ground. That, along with landslides, no earthquake proofed building can protect itself from, no matter how little it sways.
This liquifaction happened in Niigata in the 60s, thankfully the buildings remained intact - but you can see where they have slid into the ground, as if swallowed:
whereas in the much stronger Good Friday Earthquake in Alaska (second strongest ever recorded) buildings in such areas had no chance:
ok erm, I think we're a bit of topic now... back to thread...
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The second one is awesome.
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