So, I have stumbled upon this publication from the Swiss “Ecole Polytechnique Federale De Lausanne” which presents a new system to help engineers evaluate buildings that sustained earthquake shaking (and possibly damage). What they are doing instead of the “traditional” visual assessment is to place seismograph sensors in various locations on the building, and then measure its vibrations for about half an hour. The wind, engineers walking around, the traffic outside, and everything that can generate even the most minuscule of vibrations is registered in the sensors and are then analyzed on the computer. This way, engineers can accurately predict if the building is strong enough to withstand another earthquake or not, and they do so in almost no time at all!
