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Structural Factors

Trauma caused by partial or complete collapse of human-made structures is overwhelmingly the most common cause of death and injury in most earthquakes (5). About 75% of fatalities attributed to earthquakes this century were caused by the collapse of buildings that were not adequately designed for earthquake resistance, were built with inadequate materials, or were poorly constructed (64). Results of field surveys following earthquakes have demonstrated that different building types and structural systems deteriorate in different ways when subjected to strong earthquake ground-motion vibration. There is also evidence that different types of buildings inflict injuries in different ways and to different degrees of severity when they collapse (33,65,66).