I know that they can me a real pain but I assume that they are there for a reason.
Seeing the devastation and death toll in Turkey and Syria after the earthquake is really painful. The before and after pictures showing whole streets reduced to rubble makes me wonder wether less stringent building control has a role to play?
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I think the low risk of earthquakes in the British Isles is usually why you don’t see much damage from earthquakes here…
Afaik buildings in the uk aren’t built to withstand earthquakes so I imagine we would see similar results.
Answers after a quick search…
[https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/57a0897c40f0b652dd000242/EoD_HDYr3_59_November2015_Seismic_Building_Codes.pdf](https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/57a0897c40f0b652dd000242/EoD_HDYr3_59_November2015_Seismic_Building_Codes.pdf)
[https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/Updated_seismic_hazard_maps_for_the_UK#Designing_for_earthquake_resistance_in_the_UK](https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/Updated_seismic_hazard_maps_for_the_UK#Designing_for_earthquake_resistance_in_the_UK)
We’ve had magnitude 5+ earthquakes in the UK before.. but nothing on the scale as Turkey & Syria experienced. The ~~longitudinal~~ logarithmic (I should re-read what I type) nature of the scale means theirs was 200ish times more intensive.
I also re-did my maths .. 10^(7.5-5.2) .. i think!
The UK’s infrastucture is built with the conditions of the UK in mind. They aren’t going to withstand highly devastating earthquakes.
This is why our rail systems (for instance) shut down when it gets a little bit icy. It isn’t because our rail systems are crap, it is because they were never designed with the blistering cold in mind. The same way that many Norwegian railways will shut down if it gets unseasonably hot.
No sense designing and paying to develop something that is really unlikely to happen.
Our buildings can’t even cope with targeted nuke drops.
I’m not sure what building control regulations they have in Turkey tbh, but earthquakes are not that common. Maybe places were skirting around the regs, maybe the regs are stringent enough.
Nevertheless, they’re incredibly important in America where earthquakes can be common like LA.
Grenfell Tower? Poor insulation on even new builds? If you are attempting to hold up the UK as an example to the world.
As Al Murray Pub Landlord once said, ‘We don’t get earthquakes in the UK. No, because we don’t deserve them.’
We’ve all seen buildings collapse in other countries on the news, including the US, so I suspect our building controls are pretty high, but then you will always get companies who cut corners, as we saw the Grenfell