Earthquake

[piercehawkeye45]

Originally Posted by glatt

Looking at those pictures, I'm struck by the lack of rebar poking out of the chunks of concrete. I know they are poor, and building practices are different all over the world and throughout the years, but I thought rebar was pretty standard when making stuff out of concrete. Concrete just isn't strong enough when it isn't reinforced internally with metal bar. They didn't have a chance.

I read an article yesterday which hinted that building codes there are just not enforced for whatever reason. I can't image a concrete code that doesn't require steel rebar. It could hold against idealistic pure compression alright but once put into tension, which is impossible to avoid as well, the concrete loses about 10 times its strength.