Tectonic Professor studies collapsed buildings to predict earthquakes

Professor Gordon Lister from the Australian National University has proposed engineers studying why skyscrapers collapse, could also help scientists better understand major earthquakes.

Professor Lister is a tectonic expert who looks at the dynamic architecture of the Earth, and the winner of the Australian Academy of Science’s 2012 Mawson medal for research in geology.

He explained that earthquakes result from catastrophic reduction in the load-bearing capacity of stressed mechanical structures meaning that they can be examined in the same way as an engineer would analyse failure and collapse of a major bridge, dam or even a large building.

Image: Professor Gordon Lister via ANU

“By understanding the dynamics of loading and how load-bearing structures interact, we should be able to determine the ideal locations for instruments to analyse or predict major earthquakes,” he said.

Professor Lister recently presented his work at the Shine Dome in Canberra as part of the Academy’s annual Science at the Shine Dome event.