Explained: Why is Taiwan prone to earthquakes and how its technology, policies help in disaster mitigation

At least nine people have beenkilled and more than 1,000 others were injured after Taiwan was struck by one of its worst earthquakes in at least 25 years, on Wednesday (Apr 3). While the island is no stranger to powerful temblors, the death toll has largely beencontained after the 7.2 magnitude quake, thanks to Taiwan’s technology and improved disaster response over the years.

Why does Taiwan witness frequent earthquakes?

The island lies along the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” the line of seismic faults which encircle the Pacific Ocean and is characterised by active volcanoes and frequent earthquakes. Notably, most of the world’s earthquakes take place along this Ring of Fire.

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The long horseshoe-shaped path along the Pacific Ocean is approximately 40,000 kilometres and is particularly vulnerable to earthquakes.

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The frequent quakes have been attributed to the tension accumulated from the interactions of two tectonic plates – the Philippine Sea Plate and the Eurasian Plate – which lead to sudden releases in the form of earthquakes.

Around 90 per cent of all the world’s earthquakes take place along the Ring of Fire, which is also home to more than 450 volcanoes.

How Taiwan’s tech, policieshelp the island

Taiwan’s technological advancements have not only turned the island into a semiconductor powerhouse but also helped mitigate the impact of earthquakes allowing it to keep damage and casualties relatively low.

Since 1980, Taiwan and its surrounding waters have recorded about 2,000 earthquakes with a magnitude of 4.0 or greater, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

The last major earthquake in Taiwan occurred in February 2016, when a 6.4 magnitude earthquake caused a 17-storey apartment complex in southwestern Taiwan to collapse, killing at least 114 people.

Five people involved in the construction of the high-rise building – which was the only major structure to have collapsed following the 2016 earthquake – were found guilty of negligence and given prison sentences.

However, it was the devastating earthquake on September 21, 1999, that acted as a wake-up call for Taiwanese officials to improve its emergency response and disaster reduction.

At the time, a 7.6 magnitude earthquake in central Taiwan killed nearly 2,500 people and left around 100,000 others injured. It also left 50,000 buildings damaged or destroyed.

“Observers strongly criticised Taiwan’s response…arguing that it took hours for emergency medical response teams to arrive, that rescuers lacked training, and that the operations between government agencies were not well coordinated,” Daniel Aldrich, professor of political science and public policy at Northeastern University told the Associated Press.

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The government had also passed the Disaster Prevention and Protection Act and set up two national centres to handle coordination and training for earthquakes.

Over the years, Taiwan has developed what has been called one of the most advanced earthquake preparedness in the world, Stephen Gao, a seismologist at Missouri University of Science and Technology told the AP.

This includes the implementation of strict building codes, a world-class seismological network, and widespread public education campaigns on earthquake safety.

However, Taiwan did not stop there and continues to develop its disaster response system, which has reportedly become more sophisticated in the last three years or so.

“Taiwan continues to develop these technologies, and we have advantages,” said Wu Yih-min, a professor of geosciences at National Taiwan University, according to Bloomberg.

Wu, a team head at the National Science and Technology Center for Disaster Reduction, also explained how these systems work.

Taiwan’s disaster response system scans keywords and photos posted online, detects mobile signals in affected areas, and collects screenshots from surveillance cameras across Taiwan.

This data helps the government to deploy resources quickly, track the flow of people, and assess damage across the island, said Wu.

More than 300,000 households lost power after the quake, but according to Taiwan’s power company, electricity to more than two-thirds was restored in less than two hours, reported Bloomberg. As of Wednesday afternoon, only 3,478 were still dealing with outages, the company said.

Impact ofWednesday’s earthquake

The earthquake on Wednesday struck at 8:00 am (local time) just offshore the sparsely populated Taiwanese county of Hualien, as people were leaving for work and children were headed to school.

At least nine people were killed and around 1,038 others were injured, reported Reuters citing the data from the Taiwanese government, on Thursday (Apr 4).

The earthquake was powerful enough to trigger a tsunami warning for southern Japan and the Philippines, which was lifted later in the day.

It also triggered around 24 landslides, downed power lines, and caused some buildings to precariously tilt at 45-degree angles with their ground floors crushed, and others to collapse.

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Around 35 roads, bridges and tunnels were damaged and train services were briefly halted after some train tracks were twisted by the stress of the quake.

Taiwan’s weather agency recorded more than 50 aftershocks, which could be felt as far as Taipei, but the number rose to 201 by evening. Some aftershocks were of magnitude 6.5 and many over magnitude 5.

Additionally, 52 people were reported missing, as of Thursday (Apr 4), said the fire authorities after around a dozen of the hotel workers on their way to a resort in a national park had been located, with 38 still listed as missing.

Fire authorities also rescued some 70 people trapped in tunnels near Hualien city. On Thursday morning, six people who had been trapped in a mining area had been rescued using a helicopter, said the fire department.

As of early Thursday, rescue work for people who had been trapped in buildings in Hualien city was completed, while some people slept outdoors overnight. However, aftershocks continued to rock the region.

(With inputs from agencies)