ABSTRACT
On February 27, 2010 at 3:34 a.m. local time, a magnitude 8.8 (Mw) earthquake struck the central part of Chile. The rupture occurred in the contact between the Nazca and the South American plates and had an approximate extension of 450 km in the North-South direction. This subduction-type earthquake affected an area of approximately 160,000 km2, which houses approximately 75% of the population of Chile. Figure 1 shows a map of the affected area, the approximated rupture zone, and some of the recording stations closest to the epicenter of the National Network of Accelerographs of the Department of Civil Engineering of the University of Chile (Boroschek et al., 2010). Figure 2 shows the intensities estimated by Astroza et al. (2010) using information collected from several field trips to the affected area, regarding
1 INTRODUCTION
Several major earthquakes magnitude 8.0 and above have affected different regions of Chile over the last 100 years. The giant earthquake of 1960 in the south of the country, the 1985 earthquake in the central region, and the February 27, 2010, Maule earthquake affected populated and industrialized areas. However, the latter is the first large earthquake that has put to the test different types of structures designed according to modern seismic design codes. Moreover, he large affected area, the concentration of urban and industrial constructions in this area, and the fact that most design provisions used for these structures are based on worldwide accepted specifications, make the observations of the performance of structures affected by the earthquake relevant to researchers and code writers everywhere.
