Mehrdad Sasani

NPR’s Michel Martin speaks with Dr. Mehrdad Sasani, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Northeastern University, about construction concerns in Morocco’s earthquake zone.

Mehrdad Sasani, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Northeastern University in the US, said the cheaper mud-brick houses that predominated throughout the villages increased the risk of fatalities during an earthquake.

According to Mehrdad Sasani, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Northeastern University, conventional adobe houses also lack the kind of reinforcing components that would give a building structural integrity and prevent, say, the roof from collapsing under lateral loads.

The added weight brought by the penthouse had the potential to exacerbate a failure and contribute to the progressive collapse that killed 98 people this year, said Mehrdad Sasani, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Northeastern University who reviewed the building’s design plans. He also said the decision to add a new floor […]

The added weight brought by the penthouse had the potential to exacerbate a failure and contribute to the progressive collapse that killed 98 people this year, said Mehrdad Sasani, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Northeastern University who reviewed the building’s design plans. He also said the decision to add a new floor […]

Mehrdad Sasani, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Northeastern University in Boston, said he suspects officials would choose to demolish the building by implosion given its height and size – a process that involves the strategic placement of charges to direct the way the buildings falls.