The session, free and open to the public, will include an eyewitness report and the most important lessons derived from the February 27, Great Maule, Chile earthquake for the Cascadia region of the Pacific Northwest.
HSU Wildlife Management Professor Mark Colwell was in Chile when the earthquake struck and will provide an eyewitness account. Lori Dengler, chair of Humboldt State University’s Department of Geology, led a reconnaissance team to Chile March 25 to April 4 to evaluate the impacts and use them to improve readiness on the Redwood Coast.
Dengler’s team pinpointed factors that reduced or exacerbated physical impacts, evaluated pre-event preparedness and identified barriers to evacuation.
The magnitude 8.8 earthquake was the fifth-largest ever recorded and the first mega-thrust earthquake to strike an urbanized region with a built environment, comparable to cities in Japan, the Pacific Northwest of North America and other developed regions of the Pacific basin.
Dengler was accompanied by Troy Nicolini, Warning Coordination Meteorologist of the Eureka National Weather Service Forecast Office; HSU alum Sebastian Araya (Geography ‘02); and HSU alum Nicholas Graehl (Geology ‘09), currently enrolled in the university’s Environmental Systems master’s program.
HSU Hosts Chile Quake Report
Humboldt State University will host a presentation of findings on the recent Chile earthquake and tsunami on Monday, April 26, at 5 p.m. in Founders Hall Room 118.