1999 Jiji earthquake

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The Chi-Chi earthquake[4][5][6] the great earthquake of September 21[a])there was an earthquake in central Taiwan. The earthquake happened on September 21, 1999 at 1:47 am local time (September 20 17:47 GMT). It measured 7.3 on the Richter scale.[7] The epicentre of the earthquake was at 23°52′N 120°45′E / 23.87°N 120.75°E / 23.87; 120.75 in Chichi Township of Nantou County, hovering around the 12.5 km mark west of the Sun Moon Lake. The depth of the epicenter was 7.0 km.

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UTC time1999-09-20 17:47:16
ISC event1718616
USGS-ANSSComCat
Local date21 September 1999; 26 years ago (1999-09-21)
Local time01:47:12 local time
Magnitude7.7 Mw
7.3 ML
Depth33 km (20.5 mi)
EpicenterJiji (Chi-Chi), Nantou, Taiwan
23°46′19″N 120°58′55″E / 23.772°N 120.982°E / 23.772; 120.982
Areas affectedTaiwan
Total damage51,711 buildings destroyed, 53,768 buildings damaged
Max. intensityX (Extreme)[1]

JMA 6 [1]
Peak acceleration1.92 g[2]
Peak velocity318 cm/s[3]
Casualties2,415 dead, 11,305 injured, 29 missing

Damage caused

The earthquake caused much damage, according to the National Fire Agency, Ministry of the Interior R.O.C Archived 2005-08-20 at the Wayback Machine. This damage included:

  • NT$300 billion (US $10 billion) worth of damage
  • 51,711 buildings were completely destroyed
  • 53,768 buildings were badly damaged

The earthquake continued to shake Taiwan throughout the night. People tell stories about a house that was not destroyed but moved by the earthquake from one county to another. The story says that because of this, the owners of the house had to change their address. The earthquake killed so many people.

Chelungpu fault

The epicenter of the earthquake was Chichi Township. The 921 Earthquake happened along the Chelungpu fault line in western part of the island of Taiwan. The fault is located along the foothills of the Central Mountains in Nantou and Taichung counties. Some sections of land near the fault were changed in elevation by as much as 7 meters (23 feet). Near the northern end of the fault line, a 7-meter tall waterfall was created by the earthquake. In the middle-western part of the island, bridges were destroyed. This stopped traffic for weeks.

In Wufeng, a village in southern Taichung County, the damage was very bad. The village's Guangfu High School was located on the fault line. It was badly damaged by the quake. Today the high school is the site of the National Museum of Natural Science's 921 Earthquake Museum of Taiwan. Landslides were created which in turn caused impromptu formation of lakes.

1999 Jiji Earthquake Media

Notes

  1. Taiwanese: 九二一大地動; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Kiú-jī-it Tōa-tē-tāng; Mandarin: 九二一大地震; pinyin: Jiǔ-èr-yī dàdìzhèn; literally "921 earthquake"

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Significant Earthquake Information. ngdc.noaa.govNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. Retrieved 19 September 2021.
  2. M 7.7 – Taiwan. earthquake.usgs.gov. Retrieved 7 February 2018.
  3. How Fast Can the Ground Really Move?INSTITUTE FOR DEFENSE ANALYSES. Retrieved 2021-11-03.
  4. Wen-Hsien Li. Fault Dynamics of the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake: clues from nanometric geochemical analysis of fault gouges. Scientific Reports 9 (1) (2019). p. 5683. doi:10.1038/s41598-019-42028-w.
  5. Lin Chia-nan. Study on crustal changes after 921 quake unveiled. Taipei Times (28 March 2019). Retrieved 21 September 2019.
  6. 2000 Year In Review; 2002 Year in Review (1999). p. 52, 53, 92.
  7. J. Mori. Chichi, Taiwan Earthquake (Mw 7.7): Report of a Quick Investigation. Research Center for Earthquake Prediction, Disasaster Prevention Researth Institute, Kyoto University. Retrieved 2019-09-21.

Other websites

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