May 12, 2008
Monday, May 12, 2008, 14:28:01 local time
USGS Bulletin | USGS Earthquake List for 2008
RECONNAISSANCE ACTIVITIES Wenchuan, China, Earthquake: EERI and GEER Collaborate on Sending Team to China to Bring Back Lessons for the U.S.  A team of earthquake researchers, sponsored by the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) and the Geo-Engineering Earthquake Reconnaissance (GEER) Association, will join Chinese colleagues in investigating and documenting scientific and engineering effects of the devastating earthquake (magnitude 7.9) that occurred in Wenchuan County, China, on May 12, 2008. The research team, under the leadership of Marshall Lew of MACTEC Engineering and Consulting in Los Angeles, California, includes experts in structural, lifelines, and geotechnical engineering as well as disaster response and recovery.
| The EERI/GEER team members have completed their investigations and have all returned safely to the US. On October 7, 2008 EERI's Southern California Chapter presented a Technical Briefing on the Wenchuan Earthquake. Click here to download the team's report on preliminary observations. |
In addition to Marshall Lew, EERI team members are David Friedman and Dennis Lau of Forell/Elsesser Engineers, Inc., and Laurie Johnson, an urban planning consultant, all of San Francisco, California; Tricia Wachtendorf of the Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware in Newark; and Jian Zhao of the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. GEER team members are David Frost of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Savannah; J. P. Bardet of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and Tong Qiu of Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York.
Read more... Links to other reconnaissance reports are listed below: - Observations and Photos from Zifa Wang and colleagues at Institute of Engineering Mechanics, China Earthquake Administration (12MB PowerPoint slideshow)
- Observations and photos from University of California reconnaissance team (15MB)
 - Photo Gallery (265 photos) from Veronica Cedillos, project manager with Geohazards International, who visited Chengdu, Dujiangyan, Bailu, Pengzhou, Mianzhu, and Hanwang in July
- Reconnaissance Reports from Elizabeth Hausler (Build Change)
Reports include Observations and Opportunities for Technical Assistance, Residential Buildings Summary, Rural Residential Buildings, Multi-Story Residential Buildings, Surface Fault Rupture, Xiao Yu Dong Bridge, Permanent Ground Displacement and Gao Yuan Bridge. - Reports from Taiwan's National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering (NCREE) based on a visit to the town nearest to the epicenter to observe the structural and geotechnical damage between May 27 and June 2
- Reconnaissance Blog from Miyamoto International
- View some of Miyamoto’s photos in Google Map
- Presentation by Dr. Zhenming Wang , Kentucky Geological Survey, who traveled to the affected area soon after the earthquake
- Report and photos from EERI member, Dr. Eythimios Lekkas , National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, on Zipingdu Dam failure
OTHER SCIENTIFIC REPORTS NEWS REPORTS VIDEO OTHER LINKS |
Reconnaissance Activities