How big does a earthquake have to be to bring down buildings?

4 comments

1. 

   Kaz on January 21, 2010 at 2:13 pm

   depends on how the well the structure was built and where earthquake is located to that structure

2. 

   wheresmyhouse on January 21, 2010 at 2:13 pm

   Depends on how well the buildings are built, but assuming you’re in an earthquake zone where building code would have that as a factor, I’d say maybe a 6.6

3. 

   ღ ílч ღ on January 21, 2010 at 2:13 pm

   umh magnitude 5.6 or higher.

4. 

   Will on January 21, 2010 at 2:13 pm

   That question is impossible to answer as given. The three main factors are distance to the epicenter, how well the building was constructed, and what type of soil the building sits on. A poorly built building, close to the epicenter and sitting on very soft alluvium, could quite easily suffer a partial collapse from a magnitude 4.