The four classes of houses constitute percentages of the total as follows: cane, 27.2; brea, 24.7; adobe, 21.3; earth, 26.8. ‘There being little resistance between the blocks of earth of the last type and no restraining uprights of wood, they move over each other easily in times of earthquake; and the heavy roofs, commonly in a state of disrepair, readily fall down. Linne- mann has given an interesting table and some figures for the damage done to the four types in the quake of 1918, and I quote them in Table II.
TasL_e II—EartHouake Errects on VAktoUs Types of Hovses
CANE BREA | ADOBE EARTHEN HOUSES HOUSES i HOUSES HOUSES NUM- FER- | NuM- | PER- | NuM-| PER- | NUM- | PER- | BER |CENT-| BER |CENT-| BER |CENT-| BER | CENT- | AGE AGE AGE AGE Totally destroyed. . . 4| 09 s4|} 84| 57] 163] 249 | 56.6 Seriously damaged. . . 25 5.6 81 | 20.0 106 | 30.4 138 | 31.4 Slightly damaged....! 417 | 93.5 | 290 | 71.6 | 188 53-3} 53 | 12.0 | 446 | 405 | | 349 | 440 |
Nothing could better illustrate the practical effects of earth- quake studies than the analysis which Linnemann has made, for it shows how greatly the death rate can be cut down by insisting upon construction of the best sort. It would be wise policy for the government to prohibit the making of the cheapest class of house, for the capital value of a family is far greatcr to a country than the difference in cost between con- structing a house made of earth or adobe on the one hand and one made of cane on the other.
The Earthquake of 1922
On November 11, 1922, one of the most severe earthquakes in the history of Chile was experienced. Professor Bailey Willis, who has studied this earthquake for the Carnegie In- stitution, emphasizes the danger of the heavy and rigid earth- and-adobe structures commonly used in Copiapó and Vallenar.
“To construct a house that will withstand an earthquake is
