A new approach that can rapidly esti­mate dam­age to tall build­ings fol­low­ing a large earth­quake has been devel­oped by researchers. The approach involves cre­at­ing a data­base of build­ing responses to typ­i­cal earthquake-related ground motions. After an earth­quake, an analy­sis of the ground motions can indi­cate what type of dam­age is likely to have occurred to nearby build­ings. The results could be use­ful for emer­gency response deci­sion making.

Swami­nathan Krish­nan, Emanuele Casarotti, Jim Goltz, Chen Ji, Dim­itri Komatitsch, Ram­ses Mourhatch, Matthew Muto, John H. Shaw, Carl Tape, and Jeroen Tromp. Rapid Esti­ma­tion of Dam­age to Tall Build­ings Using Near Real‐Time Earth­quake and Archived Struc­tural Sim­u­la­tions. Bul­letin of the Seis­mo­log­i­cal Soci­ety of Amer­ica. 2012; 102:2646–2666.

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