On Wednesday, the earthquake was felt across Taiwan, with a magnitude of 7.4.
Taipei, Taiwan:
It was Taiwan’s strongest earthquake in 25 years, killing nine people and damaging dozens of buildings, but the damage has been largely contained thanks to decades of preparedness.
Taiwan sits on the “Ring of Fire,” a seismically active arc around the Pacific Rim, and like neighboring Japan, it has a long history of catastrophic earthquakes.
How does April 3 compare to other recent earthquakes?
On Wednesday, the earthquake was felt across Taiwan, with a magnitude of 7.4. It was the worst since a magnitude 7.6 earthquake in 1999 that killed 2,400 people and was one of the deadliest natural disasters in the island’s history.
But the scale of the damage was far smaller than what happened in some other parts of the world last year.
On February 6, 2023, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake claimed the lives of more than 53,000 people in Turkey and nearly 6,000 in Syria. Nearly 39,000 buildings were destroyed.
Then in September, a 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck Morocco, killing 3,000 people and damaging about 60,000 homes.
In October last year, a 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck Afghanistan’s Herat Province, killing about 1,200 people and severely damaging 40,000 buildings.
Experts say the biggest factor is building regulations and how well they are enforced. Collapsed buildings are considered a major threat to life during earthquakes.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, “Large earthquakes have occurred but caused little damage because they caused little shaking and/or buildings were built to withstand the shaking.”
“In other cases, smaller earthquakes can cause strong shaking and/or collapse of buildings that were never designed or built to withstand shaking.”
What measures has Taiwan taken to protect buildings from earthquakes?
Taiwan has incorporated seismic requirements into its building codes for decades, strengthening and modifying them based on lessons learned from major earthquakes in Taiwan and elsewhere around the world.
The subsequent 1999 earthquake destroyed more than 51,000 buildings and severely damaged about the same number, according to Taiwan’s National Research Center for Earthquake Engineering (NCREE).
Since then, Taiwan has updated and strengthened its building codes to incorporate earthquake-resistant construction methods, such as steel bars that make buildings more likely to sway when the ground moves.
Some major buildings designed before the 1999 earthquake already incorporate earthquake protection features.
The Taipei 101 skyscraper, once the world’s tallest building, which began construction a few months ago, has a 660-ton damper to counteract the sway.
According to NCREE, about 80 buildings in Taiwan had earthquake-resistant features such as damping in 2009, and by 2022, this number will increase to more than 1,000.
What about old buildings?
The government has also required reinforcement of structures built before the introduction of updated norms.
These old buildings are often a major cause of concern during earthquakes. As early as 2018, there were complaints about a lack of funds to strengthen such structures.
Tsai Ing-wen, who became president in 2016, pledged at the time to prioritize building safety, especially older buildings.
Additionally, NCREE said in 2022 that buildings without solid ground floors, such as those with open space common areas, need to be assessed and strengthened as soon as possible. According to the corpse, these buildings are often called “soft-legged shrimps” in Chinese.
What does it do besides building regulations?
Taiwan, known for its cutting-edge technology companies, has built an advanced warning system that can alert the public of potentially severe ground shaking within seconds.
The system has been enhanced over the years, incorporating new tools like smartphones and high-speed data connections, even in some of the most remote areas of the island.
Taiwanese authorities detect thousands of earthquakes each year – only a fraction are felt – and, like Japan, disaster preparedness is part of Taiwanese culture, including regular drills in schools and workplaces.
What about Taiwan’s high-tech industry?
Taiwan is a semiconductor superpower and one of the world’s leading chip manufacturing hubs, with chips installed in everything from smartphones to SUVs.
It is home to companies such as Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), which controls more than half of global chip production.
TSMC was one of the companies that halted production after the earthquake to assess whether its facilities were damaged.
Semiconductor production, especially of high-end chips, requires extremely high precision, which can be challenging in earthquake-prone areas.
Chipmaking equipment is sensitive to the smallest vibrations, and companies such as TSMC have introduced various features, such as dampers, into their buildings to reduce the risk of semiconductor damage.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
