Earthquake damage, was Re: National holiday non booty earthquake rain day

[Ron Nossaman]

>  In 1989 we were six miles from the epicenter of a 8.2 earthquake.  We saw 
>a lot of pianos that were still standing. The customers heaved sighs of 
>relief that their pianos were ok.  Only problem was that many of them had 
>_bad_ soundboard cracks which the customers couldn't see.  
>  Diane

This one's bothered me for years. We don't get many earthquakes here in
Kansas, but we have other forms of natural disasters, like movers.
Virtually every single time I've gotten a call on moving damage, whatever
it was, the customer has asked either "Is the soundboard ok?", or "Did they
crack the soundboard"? Now what I want to know is how, during moving or
earthquakes, a soundboard would crack unless it was directly contacted by
something and pushed through, or the rim or liner were destroyed? Sure, I
find cracks in soundboards after bad moves, but I see them after good moves
too. I see them in pianos that haven't been approached for any other reason
than to water the plants on the lid for the last twenty years, let alone
being subjected to dropping off a truck or being earthquaked. While I admit
I haven't inspected a piano that was damaged while being moved during an
earthquake, I still remain skeptical. I wonder how much in insurance claims
is paid yearly as a result of merely pointing at a soundboard crack that
has been there for a long time before the post disaster inspection brought
it to everyone's attention.

Since this idea that soundboard cracks are the result of one single
incident seems to be so widely accepted among the public, I'd like to hear
some thoughts from the technical community. Yea, I know they are the result
of one single incident, but I'm leaving the manufacturer out of it this
time. What I want to know is - does anyone have any reason to think that a
normal-to-rough move, or an earthquake that leaves a piano standing, was
the cause of soundboard cracks discovered after the fact? If so, what's the
reasoning? I can see a jolt knocking loose old hide glue joints that could
have failed spontaneously at any time, but soundboard panel cracks? How is
that likely?

 
Ron N