Damage to Mauna Kea

By Aaron on October 16, 2006 at 10:14 pm | In Blog Posts |

First and foremost, there are no reports of major injuries. As for the equipment…

• Here is a report from a staff member at Keck posted in the Astronomy LiveJournal community. (October 16, 2006 @ 22:14 )
• Earthquake Map from Visualizing Science blog
• Subaru Observatory Report
• UKIRT Observatory Report
• JCMT Observatory Report
• CFHT Report
• IRTF Report

Our own Doug Welch is associated with the Gemini Observatory. He is currently on his way to Chile for an observing run. We are planning our next show recording for October 29. He’ll call-in from Chile and give us a first-hand report on what is going on with the Mauna Kea observatories.

This press release was just issued by Keck (Oct 17 10am EST):

Earthquake Update from W. M. Keck Observatory

Kamuela (October 16th, 2006) The W. M. Keck Observatory is recovering
from a 6.6-magnitude earthquake and a series of aftershocks that struck
off the west coast of Hawaii Sunday morning at 7:07 a.m. HST. The
earthquake was the largest to hit Hawaii in 20 years and caused power
and communication failures across the state. There were no injuries at
W. M. Keck Observatory and all personnel are safe.

The Observatory has cancelled observing through Wednesday night and
Observatory personnel are in the process of bringing the facility into a
safe state. The telescopes and instruments will be returned to full
functionality as soon as possible.

As of Monday afternoon, summit technicians report that the primary
mirrors of both Keck telescopes are intact and do not appear damaged.
However, some guiding and pointing systems have been impaired and must
be returned to normal before Observing can resume. As of Monday,officials
estimated it would take a few days to return Keck I tooperational status.
It will take at least this long to restore Keck II to functionality. There is
no damage to observatory computers or servers
and all data has been backed up and is safe. Power has been restored to
all headquarter and summit facilities.

“We have a great team for circumstances like this, and everything that
we are doing is about getting the telescopes working on-sky as soon as
we can in a safe manner,” said W. M. Keck Observatory Director Taft
Armandroff. “There has been an amazing amount of dedication and
resourcefulness by staff at the summit last night and today, and I am
very impressed.”

The headquarter facilities will be open on Tuesday.

Scheduled observing teams are encouraged to contact Observing Director
Bob Goodrich at (808) 881-3869 with questions about specific instruments
or travel to Hawaii.

The W. M. Keck Observatory Web site will provide additional information
as it becomes available at:
http://www.keckobservatory.org/article.php?id=3D95. Those wishing to
receive e-mail updates directly may send requests to:
newsletter@keck.hawaii.edu.

Media Contact:
Laura K. Kinoshita
W.M. Keck Observatory