Student Poster Competition

The Solutions to Coastal Disasters (SCD) Organizing Committee has announced a Student Poster Competition, to take place at Solutions 2011 in Anchorage, AK. Poster Sessions are a valuable opportunity for students to present papers and meet with interested conference attendees for in-depth technical discussions. The deadline for abstract submissions will be March 14, 2011, with decisions announced in April, 2011. For more information, download the Poster Guidelines and Evaluation forms below.

Student poster abstract requirements:
Abstracts should address the content requirements listed in the Conference Call for Papers. Abstracts must be written in English, and are limited to two pages (either A4 or US 8.5 x 11 inches), including figures and tables. An individual may not be the first author or presenter of more than one poster. Abstracts must include a title and the names, addresses, and email addresses of all authors. Abstracts should be e-mailed in .docx or .pdf format to: copri@asce.org no later than March 14, 2011. An acknowledgement of receipt of abstracts will be sent to the corresponding author and acceptance notifications will be e-mailed no later than April 18, 2011.

Poster presentations are to be made during the opening conference reception on Sunday evening, June 26, 2011.

Prizes and funding opportunities will be determined soon, please refer to the Solutions to Coastal Disasters, Student Information page  for additional information.

Hurricane season is in full swing.  Tropical storm Igor has formed south of the Cape Verde Islands bringing a total of 9 named tropical storms in the Atlantic and 6 named tropical storms in the Pacific.  We would like you to submit your photos showing the impact of these storms to share with the rest of the readers.  Please submit your photos to lou@usna.edu or madn@ocean-coastal.com with your name, location, and date and they will be posted on the blog.

The 32nd International Conference on Coastal Engineering was held in Shanghai, China June 30 – July 5, at the Shanghai International Convention Center. Shanghai is the largest economic center and an important port city in China, with 74 deepwater berths and 20 international container piers at the Shanghai Port. Attendance at the conference was high, with a total of 618 registered delegates, including 69 students, representing 38 countries. The conference was well organized and included 5 concurrent technical sessions throughout the week, with delegates presenting a total of 418 technical papers and 47 technical posters.

The keynote speech presented at the conference Opening Ceremony was titled “The Advance on China Coastal Engineering”, which was extremely interesting in that it showed the magnitude of the numerous large and complex coastal projects that China has been undertaking, for example, the Yangshan International Deep Water Port, currently under construction in Shanghai.

During the Coastal Engineering Research Council (CERC) open meeting at the end of the first day, future conferences were discussed. Prof. Inigo Losada presented the conference organizing status for ICCE 2012, to be held from July 1-6, 2012 in Santander, Spain, followed by Prof. Kyung-Duck Suh who mentioned that they were underway in organizing ICCE 2014 for Seoul, South Korea. Two proposals were presented for the ICCE 2016. Prof. Nobu Kobayashi made a presentation to hold the conference in Baltimore, MD, while Prof. Aysen Ergin made a presentation to hold the conference in Istanbul, Turkey. During the conference’s Closing Ceremony it was announced that the CERC had selected Istanbul, Turkey for ICCE 2016, and that ICCE 2018 would be held somewhere within the U.S.

Following the CERC open meeting during the conference’s first evening, ACOPNE held a ceremony to present Diplomate Certificates of Coastal Engineering to ten new Diplomates. COPRI and ACOPNE shared an Exhibitors booth, manned by Tom Chase, Director of COPRI. During the week many conference attendees stopped by the booth to learn more about both COPRI and ACOPNE.

Ron Noble, P.E., L.S.

President, COPRI

Tags: ACOPNE, Conferences, copri, ICCE, Ports, SERC, Shanghai

After a brutal winter where Nor’easters battered the New Jersey shoreline causing the President to declare multiple federal disasters in the coastal counties of NJ, the Army Corps of Engineers has approved $7.8 million in emergency federal funding to restore the eroded beach in Atlantic City.  The USACE plans to put the beach restoration project out to bid in the fall.

The north end of Atlantic City suffered severe erosion and its effects are still evident today.  Previously buried stormwater drain manholes, relic piles, and geotextile tubes are exposed within the beach.  The life guard station at States Ave which once was positioned on the beach berm is now located 20 ft above the beach.

By Rob Walker, PE – Anchor QEA

North Carolina has long been recognized in the coastal community as a state that strongly opposes hardened oceanfront structures as a tool for controlling oceanfront erosion. That policy could be changing, though, based on new actions by the state legislature and concern from residents, community leaders and lobbying groups. Although no legislation has been passed yet, by 2011, “terminal groins” could be permitted at North Carolina inlets via a variance from the Coastal Resources Commission.

Based on policies that began in 1979, North Carolina’s rules regarding hardened structures became a state law in 2003 when the Coastal Area Management Act (CAMA) was amended to prohibit permanent erosion control structures (for example, groins and seawalls) on the ocean beach. The amendment contained three exceptions: structures necessary to protect a state or federally registered historic site, structures to maintain an existing federal navigation channel, or structures to protect a vital bridge that provides the only road access to a barrier island.

Temporary erosion control structures, typically consisting of sand bags, have historically been permitted on the ocean beach, with a time limit of two to five years, depending on the size of the structure being protected. Over the past several years, the North Carolina Coastal Resources Commission has extended the time limit for sandbags in those communities that were actively seeking beach nourishment projects as a more permanent erosion fix. The last extension of this type ended in May 2008, and the North Carolina Division of Coastal Management (NCDCM) began working to enforce removal of sandbags that were past their permitted timeframe.

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Guest blogger: Marc Percher, P.E.
COPRI Chile team member

The more time I spend in Chile, the more it reminds me that while it appears to be California, it really is not.  Walking the streets of Santiago on the way to our first meeting I got the feeling of traveling through a bustling hybrid of San Francisco and Barcelona.  Last night we even managed to stumble on a restaurant called “California” that had some interesting non authentic Mexican food, but was definitely not Californian as it was filled with cigarette smoke.  The streets, buildings and people of Santiago all appear unaffected by the terremoto, with a rare structural collapse which often look to be derelict buildings anyway.  We wormed our way through the busy metro (totally not California, which is sad) and into the Ministry of Public works, which is across the street from the presidential palace (which is guarded by a  few army guys and the public is allowed to enter (yep, not California).

Currently the Chilean building code does not have any requirements for port facilities (much like California only a few years ago).  This places the ministry staff in a difficult position as they are in charge of all port facilities throughout the country, though we got the feeling they mostly focus on smaller fishing piers and coastline breakwaters while leaving the major ports to mostly self-regulate based on their concession agreements — legal documents which allow the port operator to use the land.  The ministry officials presented their findings to date and seemed genuinely interested in the oil terminal design code (MOTEMS) that Martin, Omar and Arul have been developing for the past ten years (well, not just them–there are many representatives of practicing engineers, owners and regulators who have been involved in this process, including me).  As sad as it is, it typically takes a major accident or event to provide a government agency with additional powers, but it is possible that this earthquake may set actions in motion that would allow the ministry to create a Chile specific marine design code which represents respected methods and is applicable to the specific conditions found here.  In this way our team may act as diplomats, opening the door for further conversation with ASCE and getting a Chilean code quickly implemented before replacement structures are designed.  Based on watching Miguel teach the methods on a whiteboard after the meeting, I suspect that we may have had a good start towards success.

After an altogether too good lunch (my coworker who went to Haiti is going to be totally jealous of our culinary experience when I get back) we headed down to the University de Chile to meet with Ruben Boroschek Krauskopf.  If the seismic response data is the holy grail, then Ruben is the Templar knight guarding the data and ensuring that it is safe and accurate.  Like many South American countries, Chile has limited resources (though it is one of the richest countries on the continent), and this became apparent in our conversation.  There are few seismographs available — some had been not maintained (see San Antonio), some had been swept away in the tsunami, and then there was the more troubling group of private instruments whose data can’t be shared with the public.  To fund all of these instruments, the university must sell the data sets or their upkeep services, thus a single data set may cost as much as US$50,000 (a big chunk of change by anyone’s standards).  Additionally, the older accelerometers used film (that stuff your folks used to make pictures) to create the tracked data.  For large events, let alone huge events, this results in several tracks running over each other and becoming nearly uninterpretable.  Currently Ruben’s staff has reviewed about 10 records, with another 10 to go–though none of those on a port structure.  He will be posting up his pdf of the data graphics to www.terromotosurchile.cl and will release the actual data points once the univeristy gives him the OK.  I suspect we will be talking more with him in the future.

We have had a week of ups and downs. Though we never did find the magic data set we hoped for, we did see a large amount of earthquake effects and learned some valuable lessons we can take home to our industry.  We also managed to have a fantastic time in Chile, and we call can’t wait to get back for another visit (this time with the spouses, so we have an excuse for visiting Buenos Aires as well).  On a more personal note I’ve found the experience to be an excellent one that I would recommend to any engineer who wants to do seismic design. The things you see and the conversations that result cannot be replicated in a lab.  These are real world events with real world consequences, and we must collectively take on the responsibility of making our theoretical designs sufficient to match the cruel loads of reality.  Additionally, by coming to other countries we help the world community of civil engineers to grow smaller in distance and closer in understanding.  The physics doesn’t change, just the language.  In the end, we are all humans, and we should respect the fact that rich or poor, good design should provide for a sense of safety that allows the general public to not worry about earthquakes and tsunamis.

I’d like to offer some special thanks to those who helped us make this trip as fantastic as it was:
• Jaime Serrano Carvajal of GSI, who did much of the organization and contacts for the reconnaissance efforts.
• Hugo Baesler Correa of PM Ingenieros, who did the rest of the contact and organization.
• Tom Chase and the fine folks at ASCE, for logistics and getting the whole funding thing sorted (cars need gas, trips need money).
• Marcelo Munoz Perez at EPValparaiso for the excellent walk-through.
• Daniel Ruz Araneda at Puerto San Antonio for putting up with 10^6 questions.
• Patricio Winckler Grez for an incredible tsunami presentation.
• Ruben Boroschek Krauskopf for being kind enough to take an hour with us when he’s already flooed with work and 300 emails a day requesting his time.
• The rest of the team — Billy, Martin (Marteeen), Miguel, Arul, Omar and Russ for making this a fun and educational experience.

There are many others who helped make this trip happen, but my head is swimming from six days of little sleep and way too much good food.  They weren’t kidding when they say “chow.”

If you have any questions, comments, or want to contact me please feel to reach me at mpercher@halcrow.com.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed following the trip as well via this blog.  The final report should be on newsstands everywhere in a few short months.

Guest blogger: Marc Percher, P.E.
COPRI Chile team member

I’ll start off with a side note.  After seeing all of the tsunami damage of late, I was struck by the fact that most large structures (greater than 6 to 10 stories) may lose all of their interiors during tsunamis, but generally don’t collapse.  Since tsunamis are usually up to about 30 feet tall, it is often easier to climb the stairs than run for the hills; however, many people don’t realize this and may be swept away while trying to escape horizontally.  I was fascinated to see the following statement in the elevator of our hotel: “In case of tsunami, vertically evacuate to the upper floors (5th, 6th, 7th), it is far safer than going out on the street and escape.”  This is a clear sign how much Chile is WAY ahead of the U.S. in educating the general populace to the best means of escaping tsunamis.  OK, back to the regularly scheduled programming…

Disappointment and surprises, sometimes it seems like that is all life is filled with.  I may have jinxed the team (sorry, Martin) yesterday by discussing our quest for the holy calibration.  Our best hope in finding this much desired data was in a particular berth located at the Valparaiso port.  Omar’s firm performed the original design of the structure and he therefore had all the other information (drawings, specifications, construction history) that is needed to do the analysis.  Therefore, we arrived in Valparaiso with high hopes.

For those of you not familiar with Chile geography (because I was so good at it prior to this trip), Valparaiso is a northern city directly east of Santiago and on the ocean.  The city itself is really lovely and very metropolitan, kind of like a European version of San Francisco meets Miami.  Unlike the southern facilities, Valparaiso is intensely busy, with a constant stream of trucks and stevedores milling under their numerous large cranes.  Here the tsunami effects were pretty benign, with most of the issues directly relating to the siesmic shaking.  We strolled through the historic areas of the site (some going back to the 1880s) with anticipation of what we hoped to find.  Once we arrived at the structure, which was instrumented to provide acceleration data, we got the full back story.  At the time the structure was built in the early 90s, it was instrumented (giving us that preciously sweet data we all desire).  However, the professor who collected that data retired in 2005 and no one ever kept up with taking readings.  So now we have an instrumented structure, but no one to record what those instruments say.  This was definitely the low point of the day.  We strongly recommended to the port that they install new instruments that are automated to contact a central server and powered by solar panels, (which are becoming more typical in California. Hopefully in the future, we’ll be able to count on these records being available.  To cheer us up, there were some interesting settlement issues at various locations, including a more than 100-year-old set of piles, so at least I have some cool damage photos to show off.

We drowned our sorrows in Starbucks and Big Macs — don’t ask me why the guys on the team wanted American food, I can’t explain their habits, but I can say that McCafe makes a mean mocha coffee — and headed down to San Antonio.  The port here is the busiest in Chile, followed by Valparaiso and Lirquin.

While Valparaiso disappointed us with not having any available data, San Antonio wowed us by having one of the most complicated outcomes of the earthquake that we had heard yet.  The facility has a total of 9 berths, and while the siesmic didn’t damage the structure too badly, the expectation of an approaching tsunami set off events that made our heads swim by the time we left the interview.  At the time of the earthquake, there were 7 ships at berth (which is very high for a 9-berth facility), but an hour and a half later, when the tsunami hit — thankfully compression waves travel faster through rock than water — the facility was empty, though not without some fast, hard decisions and much chaos.  The importance of instructing the vessels to exit cannot be understated. When a tsunami arrives, whether with force or as a simple rising water level, any vessel at berth is likely to break its line and become a missile.  In Talcahuana, we saw relatively tiny vessels destroy the town by playing bumper cars.  In a major port you have gigantic vessels, which could lay waste to the entire facility in a matter of minutes.  Therefore, even the threat of tsunami should strike fear in the hearts of port operators and staff.

The amazing thing is that just after the earthquake, someone in the federal government determined that there was no tsunami and that it would be a good idea to express to the public not to worry.  We do not have any information on how or why this was determined, but we do know it resulted in the loss of many lives when people returned to their homes.  Luckily for San Antonio, someone decided not to listen.  In the end, a tsunami did come and overran parts of the facility.  Had those vessels been in place, they would certainly have become free and would have decimated San Antonio.

The downside of this is that there was significant chaos at the facility, with several damaged structures and a few bollards ripped from the pier as the ships left still attached via their lines. (Yes, a vessel can break free on its own power).  Adding to this melee was the fact that the entire area loss power in the earthquake, meaning that cranes were unable to move once the power went out.  The entire situation was very complex and a detailed study of the ongoings and lessons learned for just this local event should really be performed.  That said, even with the miscellaneous damage, the alternate results would have been much more deadly and destructive.  Many of the facilities worldwide could learn from the response of San Antonio to the tsunami and it is our hope that through highlighting this experience, we can focus attention on the need for tsunami research and planning.

I would like to extend a fond goodbye to Jaime Serrano of GSI. Over the last few weeks, he has been instrumental in organizing our efforts and traveled along with us to many sites, gaining us access to the right people at the right times.  Without his efforts I fear we wouldn’t have been so fortunate to examine so many conditions.

Guest blogger: Marc Percher, P.E.
COPRI Chile team member

Port structures are pretty simple structures by appearance, but their analysis is complicated by the large loads, irregular nature, and significant soil interaction.  I like to think of a pier as building half a bridge, then hanging a 10-story building off the end while the whole thing sinks into mud (or as we’re finding in Chile, the mud moves out towards the sea).  Thus what appears to be a simple problem becomes more complex as you introduce analysis methods that account for each of these items.  Building design typically uses force based methods (e.g.: determine a design load and make sure your structure has a greater strength then the design load), but Martin, Omar, Miguel and I have all been involved with an alternative method: nonlinear analysis.  Nonlinear is referencing the idea that real materials have a point at which they start to permenantly deflect (bend something far enough and it won’t come back), so if you can capture this permenant deflection you can get an idea of the amount of damage a structure sees.  You then set the design based on an allowable level of damage (performance level in the biz) and compare if the expected damage is greater than the acceptable damage (ok, i’ll admit this is way oversimplified explanation, but do you really want me going into differential equations…cause I don’t even remember how those things work).  The major difference between force-based and performance-based methods is that the latter allows a well-designed redundant structure to withstand large loads and high levels of damage without having to become a heavy beast.

So why, you ask, should you care about these technical trivialities, well part of our goal in this wonderful boondoggle we’re on is to find some data from accelerometers (devices that measure the amount of acceleration/velocity/movement caused by the quake), so that we can create a validation check of our nonlinear methods.  Basically it comes back to the idea that science is based on validated experiments (and luckily, i’m not a scientist, as its hard to create a full-sized structure that can be shaken at will).  For us, that validation can come through the examination of an actual structure for an actual load.  Which brings me in an incredibly round about way to us traveling to the Concepción University to beg and plead for even a single set of acceleration data (my knees hurt).  We were able to meet with the head of the civil engineering department, and even found out that there are something like 15 to 30 other international teams (see, you don’t have to read just my blog) trolling the area for info (even got to meet a post doc at U. Illinois at Urbana-Champagne who did have a data set he wasn’t sure he could share, which was OK for us as it was far from the ports and well inland).  Sadly we were unable to get our data set, and are going to have to continue our pleading in Santiago or hope that our quixotic outing will be solved by hounding individuals in Concepción. (Luckily, we’re like telemarketers on the phone). 

On the bright side we did manage to see one gnarly bit of damage at the university.  It seems that their chemistry building had an exothermic reaction to the earthquake (read: it caught fire).  When we went by, they had already removed all of the burned portion and only the frame remained.  I was surprised to see that the frame was relatively undamaged (visible from afar), with the exception of a few roof beams, which had gone into some nice double curvature.  Since steel loses strength rapidly in a fire, usually at the end all you get is a big pile of sticks, but this structure seemed to be mostly together.  That said, they still were in the process of demolishing it, which made for an interesting juxtaposition with the freshman class registration going on farther down the quad.

Having renewed our lust for damage photos (gotta feed the masses afterall), we headed off to Bunta Tumbes at the northernmost end of the Concepción bay penninsula.  This little village was hit very hard.  The earthquake or tsunami knocked out the pier, destroyed many of the villages fishing vessels and destroyed several houses.  Though several of the houses actually survived the tsunami effects, which just goes to show you that Chile construction can be surprisingly strong.  Based on missing windows and doors at the first floor as well as crushed gutters on some adjacent buildings (presumably uplifted by the tsunami), our best guess is that the tsunami rise was 8 to 10 m (24 to 33 ft).  This damage was pretty typical of what Billy and Russ have been seeing in their adventures up and down the coast, which gives good understanding of the human tradegy at play, with many villages losing both their livelihood and their shelter in one fell swoop.

After sobering up from this damage, we hit the air and returned to Santiago and then drove out to Valpariaso for tomorrow’s port visits.  As we’re now about 3 hours driving north of the quakes epicenter, we’re not expecting to see damage anything like the devestation near Concepción (though Valparaiso had a 7.2 quake, which is a significant event all on its own, considered to be an “aftershock” which was much closer). 

Overall our trip to the Concepción area has been very fruitful.  We’ve documented several marine structures and had a chance to see a great deal of tsunami damage.  We’ve learned several lessons, such as if you’re near ocean water and have a large quake, RUN (don’t walk) above the 6th floor of a building or several hundred feet up a slope. We may not have gotten the acceleration data we desire, but we still managed to get enough meaty data to keep us chewing for weeks.

Guest blogger: Marc Percher, P.E.
COPRI Chile team member

The difference between engineering and science is that scientists desire to know everything, whereas engineers recognize that they can’t, but figure that they may just be able to know enough to understand how to make use of the world.  Today was an excellent example that the world isn’t always so willing to comply.

First stop today was dropping off Billy and Russ at the small plane airport (which in usual Chilean fashion turned into the usual mix of delays that resulted in us starting 2 hours behind our planned aggressive schedule).  The guys flew down to Island de Santa Maria for a quick drive by on some tsunami and earthquake events on land hardly touched by man.  Again I will defer detailed information as I was not along for the flight (and can’t say I’m all that jealous of the heap of junk they flew in on, even if it will make .5 past light speed).

The rest of the team’s first stop was the port of Lirquen.  This is the third largest port in Chile, though in comparison to Valparaiso and San Vicente it doesn’t feel that big.  There are two main piers here, one created since the 1930′s which is a hodge podge of concrete enclosed steel shapes, with another dock structure attached to the back end (sometimes civil engineering is like a time capsule, structures live WAY beyond their expected lifetime and get “bolt ons” until they look like frankenstein).  The second pier was a more modern affair with a long approach trestle and pier structure.  Living on this structure are five mobile (wheeled behemoths as they may be, they’re still considered mobile as they’re not tied to the structure) cranes used for loading/unloading vessels.  To our amazement both structures had minimal if any damage.  Even more astounding is the story the owners had to share — that these gigantic cranes had rolled up to 30 meters (about 100 feet for those SI impaired) without hitting each other, falling off the pier, or otherwise making a nuisance of themselves.  Add to the fact that the container yard was mostly unhurt, slope failures on the hill above were minimal due to lack of rain (thanks to Arul to introducing me to the concept that earthquakes in wet weather cause much more severe landslides…though it is WAY too late for me to remember exactly why this is), and the facility could be returned to operation almost immediately had us nominating it for a name change to Lucky Lirquen Port.

One phenomenon we saw that we could not exactly explain was that of steel train rails which had fractured in tension close to where they enter the main warehouse.  This is an interesting problem as the piles are on a near flat surface (taking out slope failure), there’s minimal if any fill (so no settlement), and no other fracture or liquefaction in the area.  Arul postulated that it may be soil lurching, where a earthquakes compressive wave traveling through the site creates a tension as it passes (on the backside) causing cracks to form on flat ground, which is a rare event in itself.  This one may be a mystery all its own.

Equally boggling yet reassuring was the drive to Coronel, about an half hour south of Concepcion.  This path takes you through industrial and residential areas, and one might expect that being so close to the epicenter we would see an abundance of failures; however what structural losses we did see were few and far between.  The majority of wood frame houses fared very well, and many of the industrial and larger structures we passed had no apparent damage (though often you need to be up close and personal to the facility to know if other issues stop operations — even if us structurals think the world revolves around our frames).  Again, Arul (clearly a smart guy) came in with a suggestion: as the Chilean area is in a subduction zone the earthquake occurs very deep, which results in a surface motion which with a long period (think rolling ocean waves, not rapid fire shaking).  Since the smaller wood frame structures are pretty stiff, the amount of acceleration they see is smaller than if the earthquake were shallow (like California… sorry if I gave you too much hope about your house).  Sometimes a lack of damage can be both inspiring and perplexing.

The last stop of the day was at the port of Coronel.  Again this was a tale of two ports (with the northern one playing the part of revolutionary France).  The northern port was a 1990s steel structure, while the southern one was a brand new steel pipe structure with base isolation (a hot topic of structural engineering which allows stiff structures to be provided a longer response and lower loads, in exchange for larger displacements). The south structure performed very well, with the base isolated structure having almost no damage.   However, the team was not completely sold on the newfangledness of the base isolation for a pier structure (which usually has a pretty long period on its own), so consult your local marine engineer before you go out and buy one.  There was one unusual response of the south structure, which relates to a ship at berth during the earthquake possibly striking the crane … though I can only guess this as it’s such a rare event as to need other documentation to confirm.

The northern facility mostly responded as expected, with shear failures at the welds of batter piles and limited spalling on the concrete frame, though there was massive soil movement at the abutment and vertical piles at the trestle found to be rotated severly in the wrong direction (soil movement alone would cause the piles to bend towards the sea, but what we found was bent inland.  We’re going to discuss this one further, but we’re currently thinking its a mix of kinematic (soil movement) and inertial (structure response to the earthquake).  Either way, while many of the welds failed, the structure remained stable and probably has some capacity for gravity loads; therefore we can consider even this severely damaged case to be a success story as there was no catastrophic collapse and the facility can likely be repaired.  Now lets just hope the successes we see today can carry over to the structures we design, with reality not insisting on getting in the way.

Guest blogger: Marc Percher, P.E.
COPRI Chile team member

In the words of a wise man, “I will explain … no wait, there is too much, I will sum up.” We have had an exceptionally busy yet productive day here in the Concepción area. Two major ports are under our belt with a gas terminal in the mix to boot. Russ and Billy were able to run up the coast to the north and rummage through many sites devastated by the tsunami (I can’t speak to their efforts as of yet, but it sounds like they too found many new sites which will yield understanding). So the takeaway for me is that I clearly need a longer day and a shorter sleep (though reality would say those two should be reversed).

Our morning was spent with a return to the Talcahuano area, this time focusing our efforts on the port itself. The main port is home to two fishing piers and a container wharf, all along the same line of peninsula. The age of the structures varies from the 1930s to the ’70s and the damage is similarly irregular. The structures are steel sheetpiles, with some backed by soldier piles and/or concrete (for those nontechnical folks playing at home, imagine a tin roof driven into the ground vertically and a bunch of dirt placed behind).

Arul, our favorite geotech, knows all the details, but the short of it is that sheetpiles with proper anchoring (tying the steel sheet far back into the soil behind) can perform well, but without the soil’s dynamic pressure (being accelerated in the direction of the ground shaking), can overload the sheets and cause them to rupture, releasing a wave of earth and dropping the deck and backlands (areas where the moving equipment and storage occurs). This creates an unearthly surface of intertwining cracks, and concrete slabs (usually separating at the pour joints) which makes one think of prismatic icebergs floating in a sea of gravel and destruction. Add to this a speckle of buildings and vehicles impacted by boats and container floating in the melee of the tsunami and you have a disaster scene akin to a Hieronymus Bosch painting.

After spending a few hours weaving through the Talcahuano port, we moved down to the port of San Vicente. As much as Talcahuano was totally destroyed and eerily calm, San Vicente was vibrant and noisy. It was hard to believe that the port facility was only 60 percent operational when we’re greeted at the entrance by a stack of empty cargo containers 10 tall (usually they’re only stacked four to five tall, but unusual times call for unusual operations … just don’t be close by if there’s a big aftershock). The port structures here are a hodgpodge of steel and concrete piles built after the 1970s, with the mix of material only occurring due to difficulties that happened during construction (apparently the soils of Chile are quite variable, and modern practice of using only steel piles was a lesson learned from experiences similar to that at San Vicente). That said, the structures still performed surprisingly well, with only about 10 to 12 inches of permanent lateral deformation at the deck (again, for the non-technical folks that’s a bit of sarcasm).

We were lucky enough to get the chance for five of us to squeeze into a rowboat (more lucky as we didn’t have to row) and traversed under the heavy deck. The beauty of marine structures is that they tend to tell their tale in clearly visible ways, cracking at the location where the pile meets the deck. Floating below the deck, we were able to view these connections and came away impressed by the limited cracking and spalling even under such large displacements; though clearly the winner in the contest of best performance went to the larger steel pipe piles which barely showed a scratch. We could have easily spent another few hours in San Vicente, but we were itching for new sites, and of course, had to feed ourselves at some point.

We grudgingly dined at Chile’s laid-back pace, drowning our frustration in empanadas and sopapias, and then headed on to a local gas terminal. This structure was very different from the container wharves we visited earlier, with a one-kilometer roadway leading to a platform that looked like it was pulled from the north sea. Unlike the container wharves, the structure here was in pristine condition, with only minor equipment damage that was readily repaired. The terminal was a nest of steel pipe piles with scattered dolphins and mooring buoys, all supporting the loading of propane from the nearby Bio Bio refinery.

Although the structure was fine, the problem turned out to be something much more surprising. A subduction zone is where tectonic plates shift over each other, one driving the other up while it goes down. The result of this is that large earthquakes cause seemingly incredible movements. In this case, the shifting plates caused the entire area (including the little terminal attached to it) to shift up by two meters (yes, that’s more than six feet). So although the water stayed in place, the land rose, which doesn’t sound so bad on the surface (sorry about the pun), but plays hell when trying to bring a boat in. Thus, a structure which appears altogether fine is made unusable when it rises from the sea.

All in all, it has been an incredible day, even if so long that it will surely seem a dream from the sleep I’ve missed. Tomorrow we continue on our quest for more understanding and I’ll keep my fingers crossed it lives up to today’s experience.