Engineering for Earthquakes

Engineering for Earthquakes

Top of Mind with Julie Rose - Season 1, Episode 43 , Segment 5

Food Insecurity, Narcissism, Tax Forms, Earthquakes

Episode: Food Insecurity, Narcissism, Tax Forms, Earthquakes

  • Apr 15, 2015 9:00 pm
  • 11:30 mins

Guest: Jennifer Tovar Craft, defended her thesis in BYU's College of Engineering and is headed to work for Exxon Mobil in Houston. She is the 2015 winner of BYU's 3 Minute Thesis Competition On any given day, the US Geological Survey records dozens of earthquakes happening around the world. Many are so small and deep as to not be noticed by people on the earth's surface, but others are significant enough to cause damage. The USGS says the majority of deaths and injuries from earthquakes result from damage to buildings or other structures. Hence, the importance of building codes and engineering techniques that have developed in the U.S.-many tied to major earthquakes in the 80s and 90s in tremor-prone California. While buildings today are much safer than they once were, techniques to resist seismic activity are far from perfect.