February 27. 3:34 in the morning. 8.8 degrees Richter. 2 minutes and 45 seconds. Numbers that alone do not say much, but together they summarize what was the second strongest earthquake that has shaken the country, surpassed only by the Valdivia earthquake of 1960, which is the largest magnitude recorded in history.
14 years have passed since that great catastrophe, which made Chile have to rise once more, but not before learning from what happened, says Juan Carlos de la Llera, former dean and academic of UC Engineering.
“Every time there is an earthquake, there are great learnings. There is no more reliable proof of the level of engineering, construction, and national standards than an earthquake, and each earthquake, due to its characteristics, discovers new things,” explains the academic. The magnitude of the movements exceeded what is considered by Chilean construction regulations, having to establish more resilient structures, more resistant walls and characterizing the soils on which it is built, in addition to the creation of the National Disaster Prevention and Response System in 2021.
The development of buildings with seismic protection has been the main line of research of Juan Carlos de la Llera, being recognized by the National Academy of Engineering of the United States this year. The technology helps mitigate the effects of telluric movement by up to 10 times thanks to the insulators and energy dissipators that reduce the impact and deformation in the structures.
Since this system has been used, new devices and techniques have appeared. One of the topics that the academic has most developed is the reduction of the cost of seismic protection systems to be able to incorporate them in social housing.
“Today there are techniques that did not exist in 2010 to be able to seismically isolate lower-cost homes. So the performance is practically the same, but the cost of the devices is a third or a half. I think there is still a lot to advance in lowering costs, in still producing efficiency within the devices that we are generating, but we are almost at the level where it can be used from a single-family home to the most complex structure or building that the country has. ”, explains the academic.
The consequences of the tsunami
The mega earthquake, with its epicenter on the southern coast of Maule, in front of Cobquecura, generated a tsunami that hit the Chilean coast, from Navidad, in the O’Higgins region, to Tirúa, in the Biobío region.
“The tsunami is a natural process that is orphaned in our legislation. A large part of our coastal human settlements experienced something that no one saw coming, schools were flooded, social housing, residential uses, factories, etc. were flooded. Everything that was on the coast had been built for decades in flood danger zones,” says Marcelo Lagos, an academic at the UC Institute of Geography.
In recent years, Chile has experienced both earthquakes and tsunamis. After the 2010 catastrophe, on March 11, 2011, a tsunami reached the Chilean coast caused by the earthquake in Japan; On April 1, 2014 there was an 8.2 magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Iquique; On September 16, 2015 there was another earthquake with a tsunami of 8.4, in Illapel, Coquimbo region.
The use of signs that indicate danger zones, safety zones and evacuation routes in coastal areas, the Emergency Alert System (SAE) – a message that reaches directly to the cell phones of people who are in risk areas. tsunami, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and forest fires – are some of the advances in preventive matters that have been applied.
Furthermore, the number of earthquakes and tsunamis that the country has suffered has caused communities to develop self-care behaviors and know how to react in emergency cases. “There is a better understanding, a perception of the danger than what happened in 2010,” says the academic.
According to Marcelo Lagos, great progress has been made in implementing technology to create evacuation and early warning systems, but in these 14 years it has still not been possible to address the construction of critical and residential infrastructure in danger zones.
“The underlying problem is to prevent further densification with critical infrastructure and residential use in areas in danger. The power of real estate and the lack of understanding of risk in general, on the part of authorities, politicians and the community in general, quickly makes us a society that forgets. The learnings following 2010, following the great tsunami of 2014 and 2015 in Illapel, have not managed to permeate the public policy that gives guarantees of inhabiting decent and safe territories,” emphasizes the geographer.
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