6.5 quake hits morocco...

Villages unable to withstand quake

yep, I'm back to blogging quakes.

so far the death toll is large, maybe 300, but at least it isn't as large as morocco's earlier quakes which killed tens of thousands.

For some interesting maps and actual details about this quake, see the USGS report.

the depth was only 2km, which is really shallow. not surprising since the gibralter straight is on a fault line...but shallow quakes usually generate intense shaking on the surface.

if the death toll remains fairly low, it may be because morocco has improved its building construction somewhat since the earlier quakes. but the country is poor and people living in villages aren't going to be running around retrofitting their huts.

the housing construction problem is widespread among the world's poorer and more rural countries. of course, you can't retrofit your tent or hut, but when there are large concentrations of people living in dense, un-earthquake safe housing, especially in regions prone to occasional strong quakes, there ought to be some way that the international community can provide funding and architectural assistance to prevent mass deaths when these quakes occur.

recent examples: turkey and iran. turkey has notoriously poor housing construction (in fact, when they do get around to condemning buildings, they don't tear them down, they let the US military move into them -- or at least that was the situation in the 60's).

anyway, it seems a good project for international aid groups. a little pro-active effort could spare tens of thousands of lives and improve the living conditions of millions. I'm sure there are plenty of architecture students who would benefit from an internship working on such a project. such a project would also provide employment for so many of the world's poor. the only problem is funding...as always.