Maule, Chile, 27 Feb 2010

updated 11 May 2010

On Saturday, February 27, 2010 at 06:34 UTC (03:34 Local Time) a M8.8 earthquake struck south-central Chile. The epicentre was located 35 km offshore in front of the coast of Maule region (105 km NNE of Concepcion, 335 km SW of Santiago). The earthquake was followed by a Tsunami that affected a 200 km long strip of Chilean coast. This earthquake and tsunami affected an area of Chile about half the size of the North Island of New Zealand and a population of 6 million people.

A Pacific wide tsunami warning was issued by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre (PTWC) and by authorities in New Zealand. The tsunami was recorded on tsunami gauges around the New Zealand coast - http://www.geonet.org.nz/news/article-feb-28-2010-tsunami-alert-from-chile-earthquake.html

Several earthquake field investigation teams have followed up on the Maule Chile earthquake of 2010 February 27, including: The Society immediately considered deploying to Chile, under the Learning from Earthquakes programme. On advisement, deployment was delayed until near the end of April when the impacted areas of Chile were beyond the immediate response phase. Considerable planning occurred involving parties in Chile, New Zealand and Australia. The then President of NZSEE, Graeme Beattie, put out a special newsletter with a call for members interested in participating in a Learning from Earthquakes visit to Chile, some 35 responded.

Following the NZSEE Conference in Wellington, with its presentation on the Maule Earthquake by Prof Jose Restrepo UCSD who had just come directly from Chile for the conference, additional interest picked up, including from the Australian Earthquake Engineering Society (AEES). The NZSEE (Australasian) Maule Chile Mission team comprised of,

Name Organisation Designation Team Position
John Hamilton Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management Dir Civil Defence Emergency Management Chief of Party
Dr Hugh Cowan Earthquake Commission (EQC) Research Manager Co-Leader
Peter Smith Spencer Holmes Ltd Director Co-Leader
Penny Allan School of Architecture, Victoria University of Wellington Assoc Prof Landscape Architecture Member
Graeme Beattie BRANZ Principal Structural Engineer Member
Martin Bryant School of Architecture, Victoria University of Wellington Senior Lecturer, Landscape Architecture Member
Dr Katherine Butterfield Environmental Risk Management Agency (ERMA) Senior Policy Analyst Member
Mike Davis School of Architecture, Victoria University of Wellington Research Assistant / Tutor Landscape Architecture Member
Noel Evans Opus International, Napier Structural Engineer (Relationship Manager) Member
Gary Gibson Environmental Systems and Services Pty Ltd
(sponsored by the Australian Earthquake Engineering Society)		 Senior Seismologist; University of Melbourne,
Seismology Principal Research Fellow		 Member
Dr Clark Hyland Hyland Fatigue + Earthquake Engineering Ltd Managing Director Member
Graeme Lawrance Department of Building & Housing Senior Advisor (Structural Engineering) Member
Craig McGhie Transpower Senior Development Engineer Member
Claudio Oyarzo Vera Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering,
The University of Auckland		 PhD candidate (Structural Engineer) Member
Patricio Quintana Gallo Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering,
The University of Canterbury		 PhD candidate (Structural Engineer) Member

Peter, Claudio and Patricio departed NZ April 24 as an advance party, followed a week later by the remainder on May 1.

A log of the visit is provided by Garry Gibson (AEES) - see Link

More reports will follow.



Older post...
A M 8.8 Earthquake rocked Maule, Chile on 27 Feb 2010 and prompted tsunami warnings throughout the Pacific.

Details of this offshore earthquake are summarised as part of the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program Report.

The EERI are assembling a Field Investigation Team (Tue 2 March, details) and have several links to reports and photo galleries.