Science View S2012E39 - How Buildings Handled Japan's 2011 Megaquake

The collapsing ceiling of the Ibaraki Airport lobby was one of the first scenes relayed after the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011. The ceiling was made of plaster boards and anyone struck by them would have been badly injured. Why did this ceiling fail? The earthquake in fact revealed an unexpected weakness in a certain kind of building. The problems came with the suspended ceilings which are used in various other public buildings as well, aside from airports. What is the mechanism of their collapse? What can be done? Professor Kenichi Kawaguchi of the University of Tokyo Institute of Industrial Science joins us in the studio to talk about studies aimed at saving lives when buildings suffer earthquake damage. You have to see this!