UIUC Researchers Release Report on the Maule (Chile) Earthquake

A team from UIUC Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) recently released their report on the Maule (Chile) Earthquake of February 27, 2010. The group had previously visited Chile to assess the infrastructure damage resulting from the earthquake that registered 8.8 on the Richter Scale. 

The team included earthquake engineering professor and CEE department head Prof. Amr Elnashai who was making his twentieth earthquake damage assessment trip, ICT Director and Founder Professor of Engineering Imad Al-Qadi, Prof. Youssef Hashash (CEE geotechnical Engineering), and Prof. Jeffery Roesler (CEE transportation engineering, who was at the time studying in Chile as a Fulbright Scholar).

The group visited various civil engineering systems such as buildings, bridges, roadway networks, and embankments that suffered damage along the 500 km fault that slipped. The team also visited various damaged buildings in Santiago, bridges that were significantly damaged along Ruta 5 (the country’s main interstate route), various damaged buildings in Talca and Concepcion, and damage from the Tsunamis at Talcahuano.

The team was greatly assisted by professors from the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile specifically Prof. Rafael Riddell (structural engineering), Prof. Guillermo Thenoux (materials and roadway engineering), Prof. Mauricio Lopez (construction materials), Prof. Carlos Videla (construction engineering and materials), and Mr. Marcelo Hormazabal.

Al-Qadi says, “The trip was an eye-opener for ICT. Rarely have we had the opportunity to assess pavement damage from an earthquake so carefully.”

The team plans to use what they learned for educational, research, and design purposes.