Scientists seek quake-resistance tips in Parthenon design
ATHENS —
Japanese scientists will next month look into seismic resistance secrets in the design of the 2,500-year-old Parthenon which has withstood scores of quakes, a senior Greek archeologist said on Saturday.
“The Parthenon had great resilience to earthquakes, as did most classical Greek temples,” Maria Ioannidou, the archeologist in charge of conservation on the ancient Acropolis citadel where the Parthenon stands, said.
“The ancient Greeks apparently had very good knowledge of quake behavior and excellent construction quality,” she added.
Toshikazu Hanazato, a professor of engineering at Mie University and an expert in post-quake reconstruction, heads the Japanese research team which is visiting Greece next month to study the famed marble temple.
Both countries are very seismically active and the Japanese believe there are common elements between ancient Greek temples and their own monuments, Ioannidou said.
The Parthenon has sustained significant damage in its long history but most of it was caused by man, not nature.
The temple is partly built on solid rock but also has stone foundations going 12 meters deep and its walls were held together by metal joints coated in lead to prevent rust, Ioannidou said.
It withstood a 373 BCE quake that destroyed the city of Elike in the Peloponnese and a subsequent 226 BC temblor that toppled the Colossus of Rhodes, the gigantic bronze statue numbered among the Seven Wonders of the ancient world.
More recently, a 5.9-Richter earthquake in 1999 that killed 143 people around Athens shifted some of the Parthenon’s architectural elements but caused no major damage.
Wire reports
Order by Time Order by Popularity
5 Comments
Login to comment
0
LIBERTAS
But if you don't check the designs and don't make sure that the builders don't cut corners, the whole country might as well be designed and built by Aneha! Japan has the know how, just the lack of gonads to enforce rules already on the books.
0
Beelzebub
I expect their conclusion will be to remove the engawa and add doric columns.
0
sf2k
gigantic marble and stone columns versus 3 cm plywood walls, hmm.. that's a toughie..
0
ca1ic0cat
actually the plywood is better in an earthquake than piled up stone. But the Greeks had some very sophisticated construction techniques. It took the Turks storing ammunition and the expected counterfire to ruin the Parthenon.
How this applies to modern materials I'm not sure, but it is an interesting exercise. But libertas is right, if you don't enforce the building code then the best techniques in the world aren't worth the paper they are written on....
Back to top