The magnitude 7.8 earthquake centered in Turkey’s Kahramanmaras Province on Monday released twice as much seismic energy as the 921 Earthquake, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said yesterday.
The magnitude 7.3 earthquake on Sept. 21, 1999, centered near Nantou County’s Jiji Township (集集), was the nation’s most devastating post-World War II earthquake, killing 2,456 people and injuring 10,718.
In the Turkey earthquake, which also affected Syria, more than 11,200 deaths have been reported — with the WHO saying the final toll might reach 20,000 — as well as more than 52,880 people injured.
Photo: Screengrab from Central Weather Bureau website
Seismological Center Director Chen Kuo-chang (陳國昌) told a news conference there are three reasons that the earthquake caused such severe casualties in Turkey and Syria.
“First, it happened at midnight when most people were sleeping,” Chen said.
“Second, videos show that many buildings collapsed when the main earthquake struck and no steel rebar was found in the wreckage,” he added. “It is likely that they were unreinforced brick structures, which have very low resistance to earthquakes.”
“Third, the earthquake triggered large aftershocks,” he said. “Although some buildings were not destroyed by the main quake, they were so damaged that they collapsed in the subsequent shaking.”
Chen said Taiwan does not have as much risk as Turkey of such a large quake.
“For such a large, land-based earthquake to happen, a fault of at least 150km is required, but the longest fault in Taiwan, the Chenglungpu Fault (車籠埔), is 112km, so it has a lower chance of causing a magnitude 7.8 quake,” he said, adding that the fault was discovered after the 921 Earthquake.
Nevertheless, Taiwan’s geological structure could still produce magnitude 7.3 to 7.5 earthquakes, and people should be prepared to cope with damage from such large events, Chen said.
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