Slashdot Mirror
World's Tallest Building Causing Earthquakes?
IZ Reloaded writes "A geologist thinks that the increase in the number of earthquakes in Taiwan is due to Taipei 101, the world's tallest building. CNN reports: 'Lin said Taipei 101 weighed 700,000 tons and estimated stress from vertical loading on its foundation at 4.7 bars, of which some would be transferred to the earth's upper crust due to extremely soft sedimentary rocks beneath the Taipei basin. If a fault is about to crack, then a little pressure can trigger an earthquake. It's like the last straw that breaks the camel's back.'" More from The Guardian.
Why would one want to build such a high building in the first place? It is susceptible to an easy destruction; it requires huge amounts of energy for elevators, lifting water, etc. All this is marketing. Trying to sell the city and its businesses. Vanity. Capitalism. Can it cause the earthquake? Of course it can. Not only the building itself, but all those trucks with steel and concrete going forth and back, hammering, etc. Simone de Beauvoir wrote: "If you live long enough, you'll see every victory turn into a defeat". We see now how the victorious capitalism begins to "eat itself", destructing the planet itself. Crash of "communism" was spectacular - revolts, civil wars. The crash of the capitalism will be catastrophic to a much larger scale - the collapse of the Nature, the failure of Earth.
Taiwan should attack Afghanistan. That would trigger some Al-Queda reactions and those people are good at damaging really tall structures.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilogram You know, a standard way of measuring weight. Not like you insane people with lbs.
-- Linux user #369862
Next we will hear this, "Fat arsed american caused the latest earthquake in california when he fell out of his SUV and increased the pressure on the earths crust"
-- Cheer, Cheer, The Red and the White.