[S23-P] Poster

[S23-P-08] The Nicoya, Costa Rica, Mw=7.6 Earthquake :A very successful experience of Scientific and Community organization and Preparation

^○Shusuke Irabu¹, Marino Protti², Victor Gonzalez², Douglas Salgado³ (1.Japan International Cooperation Agency, Tokyo, Japan, 2.Volcanological and Seismological Observatory of Costa Rica, National University of Costa Rica, Heredia, Costa Rica, 3.Costa Rica National Emergency Commission, San Jose, Costa Rica)

On October 5th, 2012 a magnitude Mw=7.6 earthquake expectably occurred under the Nicoya peninsula in NW Costa Rica. In spite of its large magnitude with maximum Intensity VIII of MMI recorded, and its on-land occurrence, this earthquake left no casualties directly caused by its shaking and very little damage was produced. Given the occurrence of large earthquakes in this segment of the subduction zone in 1853, 1900 and 1950, a dense geodynamic control network of seismic and geodetic instruments was installed, over a decade before, to capture the incoming large earthquake. Geoscientists kept the population informed of the seismic potential of the region; the mass media was fundamental in getting this information to every corner of the peninsula. As the stress was building up and this network was recording it, an outreach strategy to prepare the population was carried out by Japanese and Costa Rican emergency planners, together with geoscientists. This initiative was part of the BOSAI project which focused on dissemination of geoscientific result to public in earthquake prone area, an International Cooperation project co-funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency and the Costa Rica Emergency Commission. As a result of this successful experience geoscientists and emergency officials gained recognition and trust from the public.