Buildings at MIT do not have to conform to Californian or Japanese code, so in the event of an earthquake, they'll all collapse and everyone will die. That said, we can make humorous observations about a few special cases.
Kresge Auditorium is supported on the ground at exactly three points, and the exterior walls in between are made of glass. In an earthquake, the three points will shift relative to each other. But glass walls can't bend, so they'll all shatter. Broken windows are common in earthquakes as a shifting building causes a rectangular window frame become a parallelogram.
W20 is an upside down pyramid. Notice how none of the Egyptian upside down pyramids have survived the ages, while many of their right side up pyramids have. Coincidence? I think not.
The problem with the Stata center is no one will be able to tell if it's been damaged. It already looks like it's falling down. Furthermore, rescue personnel will get lost inside trying to reach you. (Everyone on the second floor is especially doomed.)
Most of the electronic door locks, including the prox card and combination locks of the Athena clusters, are designed to fail secure (instead of fail open) in the event of power loss (mail to sipb-office March 3), so, after the earthquake, unless power is restored within the four-hour battery window, you're trapped in Athena forever, out of the reach of rescue workers. MIT prioritizes deterring the theft of it computers.
Inspired by Haiti and Chile.
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