Today was a break from the hustle and bustle of taking the trains; it was almost too easy - a mini-bus awaited us as we departed our hotel! A quicker than expected ride (less than an hour) found us arriving at the "E-Defense" center (officially, the Hyogo Earthquake Engineering Research Center). This center was created in response to the Hyogoken Nanbu (Kobe) Earthquake, which occurred on January 17, 1995. In this horrific 7.3 magnitude quake, almost 6,500 citizens of Kobe and the surrounding region lost their lives, and tens of thousands more lost their houses. The economic consequences reached nearly 1 trillion dollars, making it the most expensive natural disaster on record. Construction of E-Defense began in 1999 and was completed in 2005. At this facility, Japan is learning to construct buildings and other structures which can withstand major quakes, or at a minimum mitigate the damage to less than catastrophic levels.
The major way in which testing takes place is though the worlds shaking table, which can simulate high level ground motions. The table (see attached pics) can simulate quakes of around 7.0 magnitudes; the engineers at the facility construct anything form small apartment type building to the top floors of much taller buildings (up to 30 stories, I believe). We watched video footage of simulated quakes, and saw how earthquake-resistant buildings can withstand quakes to a much greater extent than those that are not. On this particular day, workers were busy a model nuclear power plant, obviously to gain insights into how a power-plant of this type can withstand a quake. Pretty important research to gain, one would think!
After viewing the shaking table, we toured the rest of the facility - the facility was built along the major fault line of the Hyogoken Nanbu (Kobe) Earthquake. Therefore, obvious remnants of this disaster were readily observed (see attached pics).
In terms of how this experience shaped my thinking, I couldn't help but think that the Japanese became introspective in their approach to this horrible event. In the seemingly tried and true Japanese approach to dealing with a "defeat," they began a detailed look at the shortcomings to their response to the earthquake and maybe more importantly, how to avoid such destruction in the future. Now, new construction must be in accordance with earthquake resistance standards, and many existing buildings have or will be retrofitted to help avoid the calamity experienced in 1995. Simply put, in a manner that (in my thinking) arguably mirrors the response to the Hiroshima atomic bomb drop, Japan is in a mode of thinking of "never again." While Japan certainly cannot control the seismic activity of the earth, they can at least help to control the impact that the unpredictable forces of the earth can wreak on their country.
Study Tour
