[IGSMAIL-6095]: TIGO after the Concepcion earthquake

[georg.weber at bkg.bund.de]

******************************************************************************
IGS Electronic Mail      05 Mar 05:34:02 PST 2010      Message Number 6095
******************************************************************************

Author: Johannes Ihde

Dear Colleagues,

Following requests for news about our colleagues at TIGO in Concepcion
and the station itself we would like to inform you about the status.

- Dr. Hase, Dr. Sierk, Mr. Boer, three Chilean colleagues and their
families are well according to a first response from Dr. Sierk; there is
no information about the rest of the staff.

- Most of the buildings in Concepcion are without destructions. Other
regions such as Dichato in the north of Concepcion are much more
affected. Therefore the TIGO-tide gauge at the harbour in Dichato may be
destroyed.

- The VLBI telescope is obviously without defects and remained stable
connected to the basement plate.

- Data acquisition systems are functioning.

- Maser/Gravimeter/GPS receivers recorded data without gaps throughout
the whole time period until now using solar power and UPS etc.

- There are more damages at the laser system. The optical board is
ripped off the mounting.

- TIGO offers the possibility for the local people to get some help
because of existing equipment such as water pumps and a power generator.

- The security at TIGO site was established by local university staff
the whole time, so that there was never the danger of depredations at
the site.

- At the moment four experts from the German Technical Relief
Organization (THW) including a physician and a representative of the
German embassy in Chile use the TIGO site as a base camp for support
activities.

- The presence of the TIGO staff is only partially possible because of
destructed roads and restrictions given by curfews. However, the
situation is under control and the local staff does everything to
re-establish and continue work.

- The saved data are in our opinion of invaluable quality and offer a
high impact in research topics.

- Since today BKG has satellite phone communication directly to the
THW-base at TIGO.

- First analysis from different institutions show massive movements up
to 2 meters

That's for now. Thank you for your solicitousness!

Best regards
Dr. Johannes Ihde