1999 Jiji earthquake

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The Chi-Chi earthquake[2][3][4] (later also known as the Jiji earthquake[a] or the great earthquake of September 21[b]), 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.[5] 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.

1999 Jiji earthquake
Date {{{date}}}
Magnitude 7.7 Mw
7.3 ML
Depth 33 km (20.5 mi)
Epicenter location Jiji (Chi-Chi), Nantou, Taiwan
Countries or regions affected Taiwan
Total damage 51,711 buildings destroyed, 53,768 buildings damaged
Max. intensity X (Extreme)[1]

JMA 6 [1]
Casualties 2,415 dead, 11,305 injured, 29 missing

Damages

The earthquake caused much damage, according to the National Fire Agency, Ministry of the Interior R.O.C. This damage included:

  • 2,415 people died or were never found
  • 11,305 people were badly hurt
  • 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 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: 集集地動 Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Chi̍p-chi̍p Tē-tāng; Mandarin: 集集地震; pinyin: Jíjí dìzhèn; Wade–Giles: Chi2-Chi2 Ti4-chên4
  2. 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.gov. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. Retrieved 19 September 2021.
  2. Wen-Hsien Li; Chi-Hung Lee; Ma-Hsuan Ma; Ping Jung Huang; Sheng Yun Wu (2019). "Fault Dynamics of the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake: clues from nanometric geochemical analysis of fault gouges". Scientific Reports. 9 (1): 5683. Bibcode:2019NatSR...9.5683L. doi:10.1038/s41598-019-42028-w. PMC 6451003. PMID 30952874. Here, we report on the results of studies made on the fault dynamics of the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake (Mw 7.6) through identifications of the changes in the grain-morphology and chemical composition resulting from fault movement.
  3. Lin Chia-nan (28 March 2019). "Study on crustal changes after 921 quake unveiled". Taipei Times. Archived from the original on 3 September 2019. Retrieved 21 September 2019. The team detailed their findings in a paper titled "Lower-crustal rheology and thermal gradient in the Taiwan orogenic belt illuminated by the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake" which was published in the journal Science Advances.
  4. "2000 Year In Review; 2002 Year in Review". 1999. pp. 52, 53, 92 – via Internet Archive. Kao, H., and Chen, W.-P., 2000, The Chi-Chi earthquake sequence: Active out-of-sequeence thrust faulting in Taiwan: Science, 288: 2346-2349
  5. J. Mori; A. Ando; H. Katao; S. Ohmi. "Chichi, Taiwan Earthquake (Mw 7.7): Report of a Quick Investigation". Research Center for Earthquake Prediction, Disasaster Prevention Researth Institute, Kyoto University. Archived from the original on 2007-08-31. Retrieved 2019-09-21.

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