The giant May 22, 1960, Valdivia, Chile earthquake of magnitude 9.5 resulted from a rupture nearly 1000 km long on a north-south trending fault that conveys the subducting Nazca plate beneath South America. This is still the largest magnitude earthquake ever recorded. The ensuing tsunami, with crest 10-15 m high in Chile, reached maximum heights of 10 m in Hawaii and 6 m in Japan. This earthquake was a milestone in the development of seismology and earthquake engineering. To commemorate its 50th anniversary, the Chilean Association of Seismology and Earthquake Engineering (ACHISINA) and the University of Chile will host the X Chilean Conference on Seismology and Earthquake Engineering in May 2010 in Santiago, Chile. Through the presentation of scientific and technical papers from a significant number of national and international experts, the conference will contribute to the dissemination of the most recent research and developments on seismology and earthquake-resistant design.

ACHISINA’s Conference, is one of the premier Latin-American events in this field, and has been held every four years since 1963, after the 1960 Chile earthquake.

Chile is the most seismically active country of the world. This Conference is an opportunity to gain insight of the Chilean school of design of buildings and industrial facilities that has been tested by several extreme earthquakes that have affected our territory in the last 50 years: 1960 (Mw=9.5), 1985 (Mw=7.8), 1995 (Mw=8.0), 1997 (Mw=6.8), 2001 (Mw=8.4), 2005 (Mw=7.9), 2007 (Mw=7.7).

Paper presentation sessions will be held in Santiago from May 24 to 27, 2010, preceded by a pre-conference guided site visit in May 22, 2010, to the areas affected by the 1960 earthquake.