Quote:
Originally Posted by miami_fan
Are there building standards that have to be met for earthquake in the way there are building standards for hurricanes? If they are, what are the chances that east coast construction of both buildings and the transportation system meets or exceed those standards?
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There are. My father-in-law is a retired architect that designed commercial buildings all over the United States. The earthquake code for New York is surprisingly high because there is a fault line near the city, though it is not very active. The problem lies in code that there aren't very many requirements to keep buildings meeting that level of code over time. There are also grandfather laws that don't require older buildings to meet higher standards of codes. Keep in mind many of those codes were updated after the Northridge earthquake in 1994. As for the tunnels and bridges, I wouldn't be surprised if both of those things are true for them as well.
Btw, the thing he told me that surprised me was that the area with an earthquake rating code as high as Los Angles is Memphis, Tennessee. There was a severe earthquake that happened in the fault line near there in 1812 (they guess it was a 7.5) that changed the riverbed off the Mississippi river and caused the river to flow backwards into a depression that formed Reelfoot Lake.