Why Structures Survived in Kashmir Earthquake 2005

Abstract

The recurrence of natural disasters like earthquake have lead to the idea of earthquake resistant construction particularly in the earthquake affected areas during Kashmir earthquake 2005 . A number of studies have been carried out to study the causes which lead to the collapse of a structure during the said earthquake by analyzing the structures which failed during the seismic activity, However very little work has been done so far on the structures which survived the Kashmir earthquake 2005. In this study , an effort is made to ascertain as to why structures survived in kashmir earthquake 2005 by analyzing a surviving structure as a case study to determine the factors which prevented the structure from total collapse and study various construction practices being carried out in the affected area focusing on their ability to resist the earthquake and the implementation of seismic provisions at present. Saheli Sarkar mosque is located in the heart of the city of muzaffarabad is a RCC frame structure which suffered minor damages during the said earthquake and did not collapsed. The structure is taken as a case study for analysis to observe the factors which prevented the structure from total collapse.