Rescue workers and volunteers conduct search and rescue operations in the rubble of a collapsed building in Diyarbakir, Turkey, after Monday's 7. AFP via Getty ImagesInstead of this type of brittle construction, she says, engineering a building to withstand earthquakes means factoring in an "ability to deform. "It's also important to note that Monday's quake was so large and shallow that "in almost any part of the world [where] a similar earthquake would happen, you would see substantial damage to older buildings," Simpson says