The May 12, 2008 earthquake in China , known as the Sichuan or Wenchuan Earthquake, caused significant damage and many casualties.  Since its occurrence, EERI, as well as the United States Geological Survey and other NEHRP agencies, have been exploring with Chinese authorities the possibilities for first hand field reconnaissance or collaborative research. Starting August 4, 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. 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. |
The team will spend 9 days in the field, collecting data and documenting observations, paying particular attention to the impacts on people, the differing performance of similar structures, the quick government action that saved a large number of homeless, and the enormous challenges facing China in terms of relief and rebuilding. 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. The May 12 earthquake is the worst to strike China since the 1976 Tangshan event that claimed an estimated 242,000 lives. The May 12 earthquake affected more than 100,000 square miles and about 30 million people. It caused the deaths of more than 65,000 people, injured some 360,000 others, left many more homeless, and destroyed more than 216,000 buildings in Sichuan Province, including approximately 6,900 school buildings, whose collapses buried thousands of students and teachers. EERI is an Oakland-based nonprofit organization that, for over thirty years, has conducted a Learning from Earthquakes Program with funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF). EERI has sent researchers to investigate damaging earthquakes around the world. The research teams have brought back valuable observations that hold lessons for U.S. engineering practitioners and researchers as they strive to reduce earthquake hazards. GEER is based in Berkeley, California, and was formed in 2006 for the purpose of advancing geotechnical research and practice by documenting the geotechnical and related effects of important earthquakes. The travel of GEER participants is supported by NSF. After the team returns, their findings will be published in the EERI Newsletter; public briefings may also be scheduled. Links to news and scientific reports, photo galleries and videos pertaining to the Wenchuan earthquake are available on this site. For more information about the reconnaissance mission, contact the EERI office at 510-451-0905 or e-mail
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