Shaking of BP Exploration Building, M7 Nov. 30, 2018, Anchorage Quake

This video presents a visualization of how the BP Exploration Building in Anchorage, Alaska, shook during the moment magnitude (Mw) 7.0 November 30, 2018, Anchorage, Alaska, earthquake. The building was instrumented by U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to obtain data to study its behavior and performance during strong shaking. Such data are useful in making decisions about improving the performance of this and similar buildings.

Note that relative to the height of the building, the motions are magnified by a factor of 150 to show how the building deforms. Translational (back-and-forth) motion (dominant in the east direction) and limited torsional (twisting) motions are observed. Please note that the 14-story BP Exploration Building is sparsely instrumented, having sensors at the ground, 8th, and 14th (roof) levels only (shown in the video as heavy black lines). Therefore, in developing the video, we used interpolation of displacements between the roof and 8th floor and between the 8th floor and ground level. As a result, in the visualization, only the displacements at the ground, 8th, and 14th (roof) levels should be considered accurate. The other level displacements are the result of interpolation.