According to Marcelo Pedemonte told Radio Nihuil, from the province of Mendoza, "in Mendoza, buildings, in the traditional sense, are safer than those in Chile." Affirmation that arose after carrying out different exercises in that locality with the aim of coordinating efforts in the face of a possible catastrophe of dimensions similar to the earthquake that occurred in Chile in February 2010.
Pedemonte, who is the head of the architecture career at the University of Congresses, explained that in Mendoza the structures are anti-seismic, while in Chile they are seismic resistant.
"This means that in Chile a building can withstand an earthquake of up to a certain scale without damage. If it is stronger, with repairable damage, and if it is the largest scale, with total damage, but always maintaining stability to safeguard human life," he added.
Likewise, the professional clarified that the telluric movements can become much more intense in Chile than in the Menodcina province of Argentina, however, he explained that in that locality they have an intense respect for earthquakes because of the effects of which they have already been victims in the past, and that for this reason they do not build buildings as high as in Chile.
"In this province the concept that the building could even collapse or have to be demolished after an earthquake is not accepted. It is proposed that buildings must resist almost without any consequence, and this limits and makes impossible to have the conception of buildings of 20 or more levels, "said the interviewee.
According to data from the National Institute for Seismic Prevention (INPRES), the Argentine cities of Córdoba, San Luis, La Rioja, San Juan and Mendoza add up to between 20 and 40 earthquakes daily, of which most are not perceptible by the population.
