David Gonzalez and James Liu finally arrived on Tuesday morning. We were anxiously waiting for their arrival to head south to the epicenter. We gave them time for a quick shower and breakfast before we hit the road. Our plan is to go to Talca (about 250km from Santiago) and 100km due west from the epicenter. We had heard there was significant damage in Talca and was also a convenient halfway point to Concepcion. We first head to the Enea ...
Valparaiso photos by Roger Parra
Bldg ID 3-8.1 Port Customs Buildings (33⁰ 02' 16", 71⁰ 37' 40") Two L-Shaped URM buildings with towers at opposite sides of the street. The low rise portion is four stories and towers are 9 stories tall. One building has a seismic joint at the tower portion the other does not and thus suffered damage at the tower junction. Use Seismic Joints! The damage in Valparaiso is very light and limited to URM ...
Degenkolb's Reconn team arrives in Chile. photos by Roger Parra Building in the Cuidad Empresarial Area (33⁰ 23' 32", 70⁰ 37' 09") (below) Irregular shaped building with torsional response. Walls on southeast end heavily damaged. Shear and compression failures of the walls. Shoring being put in place. Walls are 8 inches thick with #2 horizontal bars at about 8 inches on center. Horizontal wall bars hook outside of the boundary element with 90⁰ hooks.
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What can we learn from the Chilean Earthquake?
We are just beginning the process of obtaining detailed information on the impacts of the Chilean Earthquake and we expect to learn many lessons that will be applicable to construction in the United States. We are particularly interested in what similarities we will find with the Pacific Northwest where we have our own version of the Chilean Earthquake waiting to happen on the Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ). Much like Chile, where the Nazca ...
KPLU interviewed Stacy Bartoletti about how Portland and Seattle would be affected if an earthquake similar to the one that struck Chile hit this region.
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Degenkolb will be sending a team of engineers to Chile as part of the company's tradition of earthquake reconnaissance. Roger Parra will be leading the team. Anuj Bansal, David Gonzalez, and James Liu will be joining Roger as they investigate the impacts of the seventh largest recorded earthquake in the world. Stay tuned for more information about the earthquake's impacts to lifelines and structures.