In Kuño Tambo, perched at 13,000 feet in Peru’s Andes Mountains, the mud-brick walls of the Church of Santiago Apóstol , built by the Spanish in 1681, have weathered their fair share of earthquakes. The church had become too unsafe to hold regular services, a blow to this staunchly Catholic town. Kuño Tambo wasn’t alone. Strong earthquakes in 2007 and 2009 killed hundreds in Peru and ravaged scores of historic adobe structures. The Seismic Retrofitting Project, an initiative of the Los Angeles-based Getty Conservation Institute, is studying traditional practices for stabilizing structures in areas prone to earthquakes.

Source: New York Times November 03, 2018 09:00 UTC