Chile Quake: With the recent devastation in Chile, earthquakes are once again in the news. Although more powerful, death tolls seem to be strikingly lower than in Haiti where estimates are well over 200,000 deaths. Had such a quake occurred in San Francisco, Los Angeles, or San Diego, no doubt the death tolls could have been in the millions. Statistics show that most people are killed in collapsing structures. In earthquake prone areas, structures are generally built stronger to resist lateral forces from seismic shock, but because all but the most sophisticated structures are anchored rigidly to the ground, they are subject to absorb all the energy from shock waves. Only by allowing structures to slip can they become earthquake proof. Even if structures are built substantially strong enough to not collapse, if they are anchored, then damage will occur within the structure.
Just as in unibody engineered frames for automobiles, unishell modules will be substantially stronger than conventional structures. However, it still makes no sense to subject structures to seismic shock when simple and affordable designs can protect umPODS from damage. Pit type slip-planes as shown in the diagram should be easy to construct and have many advantages over anchored foundations.
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