Dave Swanson is currently leading a team of structural engineers from the Structural Engineers Association of Washington (SEAW) through Sendai, Japan as part of an earthquake reconnaissance team. The team will study the effects of the Tohoku Earthquake and tsunami on buildings,… Continue Reading

Tsunami Debris Dave Swanson is currently leading a team of structural engineers from the Structural Engineers Association of Washington (SEAW) through Sendai, Japan as part of an earthquake reconnaissance team. The team will study the effects of the Tohoku Earthquake and… Continue Reading

As part of our ongoing series on earthquake reconnaissance and education, the Reid Middleton team wanted to share some notes from our reconnaissance trip to Chile following the February, 2010 earthquake.  The report is below. The Earthquake [caption id="attachment_64081" align="aligncenter"… Continue Reading

Day 5 - Monday 3/15/11 How well do seismically retrofitted URM buildings perform – what works and what doesn't? Today we start to answer that question. With engineers from the EERI Reconnaissance Team and the SEAOC Building Performance Assessment Team,… Continue Reading

Earthquake performance of a seismically retrofitted building.  This building had steel moment frames around the perimeter of the first level with plywood diaphragm strengthening under the second floor framing.  Collapsed URM second level exterior walls and a collapse prevention performance… Continue Reading