The tallest tower in the world

Thanks to the vibrating center column, the world's tallest tower in Japan is able to stand firm in an earthquake of magnitude up to 8 Richter scale.

Sky Tree is the name of a 633m high tower built in Tokyo of Japan since 2008. It will be open to visitors from May 5/2012.

Illustration of Sky Tree tower after being completed in 2012.

The Guinness Book of World Records recognizes the Burj Khalifa building in Dubai, 830m high - the tallest building on the planet, and the current tallest tower in the world belongs to Canton Tower in Guangdong Province, China. The height of Canton Tower is 600m, and the height of Sky Tree is up to 633m. So Sky Tree will take Canton's title of "the world 's tallest tower " after it was built the following year, National Geographic said.

With a triangular base, Sky Tree rises into the air like a giant steel pipe. Its main function is the radio and television broadcasting column. However, Japanese officials hope the Sky Tree will become a tourist attraction.

Tokyo is a city that is very vulnerable to earthquakes. So the public questioned the Sky Tree's earthquake resistance. Nikken Sekkei, who designed the tower, claimed it could stand up to the seismic intensity of up to 8 on the Richter scale. The tower is equipped with a vibration control system.The 'heart' of this system is the reinforced concrete pillars in the middle of the tower. Such bearing columns have appeared in Japanese temples. When seismic happens, the middle column will resist the swaying motion of the outer part.

Andrew Charleson, a Victoria University earthquake specialist in New Zealand, says that the bearing columns are resistant to vibration when strong winds and earthquakes.

'I hope Sky Tree will stand firm in the big earthquakes. Because the tower is too tall and slender, it will vibrate very slowly in the earthquake , 'Charleson said.

In other words, the real threat to those who climb the Sky Tree tower is just feeling dizzy.