Novel Braced Frames Will Help Salt Lake City Hospital Withstand Earthquakes

摘要

Salt Lake City residents, officials, and seismologists have long been wary of the Wasatch Fault, an active fracture along the eastern edge of the city seen as having the ability to produce an earthquake with a moment magnitude (M_W) exceeding 7. If and when "the big one" local residents fear does strike, experts predict that a large number of injured will need immediate medical treatment. For this reason, Intermountain Health Care, a Salt Lake City-based medical firm, is constructing a facility猼he Intermountain Medical Center, in Murray, Utah—that will sustain only limited damage in an earthquake and thus will be ready and able to treat the injured.