Structural damages in the Catholic Church heritage constructions of the Concepción Archdiocese due to the earthquake of 27 February 2010

Abstract

The 27^th of February 2010 at 3.34am (local time), the Central-South part of Chile was shaken by an 8.8 earthquake moment magnitude. As a consequence, several churches of the Concepción Archdiocese suffered damages. Some of them had minor damages and others were demolished or simply collapsed during the earthquake event. As a result, the authorities of the Catholic University of Concepción asked for a commission to check these churches and chapels. Through the work of engineers, architects and constructors, members of the commission, it was possible to evaluate these buildings. In this evaluation, some typical failures expected for this type of buildings facing strong seismic movements, were identified. Therefore, this work also deals with identification and recommendations of repairing to avoid failures in future earthquakes.