CWU Geological Sciences Hits the Beach in Chile

During spring quarter, 2009 Dr. Lisa Ely and graduate student Caitlin Orem traveled to Chile on a National Geographic Society Research Grant to study the geologic and historic evidence of tsunamis, along with colleagues Marco Cisternas and Marcelo Lagos from Chile and Rob Wesson from the U.S. Geological Survey. Our objectives are to combine early historic records with an investigation of the geologic evidence of past earthquakes, such as tsunami sand deposition, liquefaction and land-level changes. One such record is that of Charles Darwin, who famously witnessed and described the severe earthquake and tsunami of February 20, 1835 that devastated the coast of central Chile while he was there on the Beagle voyage.