[Cob] cob and earthquakes

[Amanda Peck]

Thank you Shannon.  That sounds very much  like what, ahem, Gernot Minke 
wrote in that free on-line manual that I'm NOT going to post the link to 
today.  Even if he was mostly talking about non-straw uses. It also sounds 
(again with "just earth") very much in accord with the pictures from Bam.

.................
Shannon Dealy wrote:
Testing of earthen structures seem to indicate otherwise, making the
structure more massive significantly improves it's ability to withstand
the stresses of earthquakes.  The weakness appears to be a function of
wall height relative to thickness, roof strength and load, and probably
other things like bond beam (or lack there of).  This makes sense from a
purely intuitive perspective (at least to me), imagine a block of cob
which is 8' high x 8' wide x 8' deep  versus a block that is only 1 foot
deep, it seems obvious that the one foot thick block will be far more
likely to break apart when subjected to an earthquake.  History (and
the recent earthquake in the middle east) back this up, the earthen
buildings with the thickest walls consistently survive far better than the
ones with thinner walls.

_________________________________________________________________
Get a FREE online computer virus scan from McAfee when you click here. 
http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963