Some California buildings share a flaw with the ones that fell like "pancakes" in Turkey quake, but similar devastation is unlikely

Thousands of buildings in California share a flaw with the structures that collapsed in Turkey and Syria earlier in February, but experts say it's unlikely that a similar crisis could take place in the United States. 

On Feb. 6, Turkey and Syria were struck by two 7.8 and 7.5 scale earthquakes, with further aftershocks only leading to more chaos. Millions of people have been displaced and tens of thousands have died, with rescue crews working around the clock to pull survivors from the rubble. One of the main reasons that the buildings collapsed like "pancakes" is the widespread use of non-ductile concrete, a building material that does not have much steel reinforcement and holds up poorly in earthquake conditions. Ductile concrete is more reinforced and can undergo more severe conditions before breaking. 

Terrence Paret, a senior engineer who studies seismic retrofitting and has done seismic risk assessments in Turkey said the presence of this much non-ductile concrete is why there are "seismic tragedies every decade" or so in Turkey. While the thousands of non-ductile concrete buildings in California are alarming, they aren't nearly as common as they are in Turkey, primarily because such buildings stopped being erected in the United States after a 1971 earthquake in San Fernando, CA.