The Royal Commission on the Canterbury Earthquakes has been trying to find out why some buildings collapsed on February 22nd 2011. Their report last week was about the CTV building, which killed 115 people when it collapsed and fire broke out.
After the earthquake the Building and Housing department, a government department, tested samples of the concrete and steel from the CTV building. They also built a model of the building. They said the design was part of the problem but the materials were also not strong enough. The concrete columns did not bend – instead they broke. The support walls twisted. Another problem was the extreme horizontal shaking. In fact, the maximum acceleration of the February 22nd earthquake was similar to the maximum acceleration of the March 2011 earthquake in Fukushima, Japan. The Canterbury earthquake measured 6.3 on the Richter scale but it was shallow and centred near the CTV building. On the other hand, the Fukushima earthquake, which measured 9.0 on the Richter scale, was centred out at sea.
The CTV building was built in 1986 and building standards have changed since then. However, the report said that the building did not meet the 1986 standards. Other buildings of that age did not collapse.
The company which designed the building does not agree with the report.
Grammar
• centre – usually a noun – is used here as a verb – passive voice e.g. it was centred.
• similar to (not similar as or similar with)
Vocabulary
• collapse – fall down
• fire broke out – this is an idiom meaning fire started
• sample – small piece
• column – tall, cylinder shape, made of stone or concrete
• extreme – not moderate
• acceleration – rate of change of speed
• shallow – not deep
• building standards – quality of the building design and materials
• meet standards – pass standards