UC San Diego to Test 10-Story Wooden Tower’s Ability to Withstand Earthquakes

Engineers are putting the finishing touches on a 10-story wood tower at UC San Diego’s outdoor earthquake simulator located in Scripps Ranch. When completed the building will undergo violent shaking to see how well tall timber structures can handle quakes and other natural disasters.

This is the tallest structure ever placed on the shake table, which just underwent a $16.3 million upgrade that will enable researchers from around the world to simulate tremors more realistically. The tower is mostly composed of cross-laminated timber, along with steel, making it different from traditional tall buildings, which are mostly steel and concrete.

The new project is being led by the Colorado School of Mines, which plans on subjecting the tower to shaking that would be equivalent to the magnitude 6.7 Northridge earthquake that shook the San Fernando Valley in 1994, killing 60 people. Testing is scheduled to begin in February 2023.