Thursday, September 5, 2024 (first session)
4:00 - 5:00 PM Pacific Time
Thursday, September 19, 2024 (second session)
4:30 - 5:30 PM Pacific Time
Join EERI next month for a series of two webinars examining the M7.4 earthquake that struck Taiwan earlier this year. Registering once for this series at the above link will allow you to attend both webinars.
The earthquake occurred on April 3 at 7:58 am local time offshore about 11 miles southwest of Hualien City, one of the largest population centers on the east coast (pop. 99,500). The rupture occurred on a northeast–southwest-striking, moderately dipping, reverse fault within the Eurasian Plate. The focal mechanism was reverse-faulting at a 15 km (9 mi) depth. It is the strongest earthquake in Taiwan since the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake (M7.7). At least 20 people were killed and 1,100 injured, predominantly due to landslides rather than structural collapses. About 110 buildings were destroyed, including some 1,900 houses, and 870 buildings and 75 roads were damaged. While structural damage was reported across Taiwan's eastern and northern regions, it is remarkable that full structural collapses were rare. The earthquake also caused widespread power and water outages, and railway service was partially suspended across Taiwan. Around 800 landslides occurred, and a tsunami with maximum wave heights of 100 cm (40 in) was generated.
The first webinar, on Thursday September 5, is a Quick Quake Briefing hosted by EERI's Northern California chapter. Two speakers from the National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering (NCREE) in Taipei will join us. Dr. Yu-Chen Ou, Director of NCREE, will present on damage to buildings and other infrastructure, and Dr. Che-Min Lin, Research Fellow of NCREE, will present on the seismology and recorded strong ground motions.
The second webinar, on Thursday September 19, will focus on functional recovery. Dr. Wei-sen Li of the National Science and Technology Center for Disaster Reduction will speak about the role of disaster risk reduction and emergency response in making Taiwan prepared for this earthquake, and Maria Mohammed, S.E. of Structural Focus will report on the findings of the EERI Housner Fellows group that traveled to Taiwan in May to conduct reconnaissance and test a new functional recovery data collection tool.
