BendiNewsTest: Certain earthquakes threaten skyscrapers more than others

It’s not the size of the earthquake so much as its rate of oscillation that determines the extent of injuries and damage, suggest two scientific papers published recently. Following the 7.8 magnitude earthquake near Kathmandu in April, experts expected the number of deaths to be comparable to a 2005 quake that hit a less-populated area of Kashmir. The actual death toll was close to 9,000 in Nepal, nowhere near the 85,000 people who died in the earlier quake. That “is actually a small number given the density of the population in the Kathmandu area and the vulnerability of the buildings,” Jean-Philippe Avouac, the author of the papers, told The New York Times.

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