Disaster in Taiwan
May 1, 2000
By
Canadian Consulting Engineer
EARTHQUAKESAteam of Canadians was sent to Taiwan last fall to study damage from an earthquake that killed 2,300 people. The earthquake hit the city of Jung Shung Shin Tsuen on September 21 with a magn...
EARTHQUAKES
Ateam of Canadians was sent to Taiwan last fall to study damage from an earthquake that killed 2,300 people. The earthquake hit the city of Jung Shung Shin Tsuen on September 21 with a magnitude of 7.6 and damaged more 10,000 buildings.
Within two weeks after the disaster, Dr. Guy Felio, P.Eng. of the National Research Council’s Institute for Research in Construction in Ottawa led a nine-member team of engineering specialists to the area. Their task was to gather “perishable” data before it disappeared as evidence, and to evaluate the causes of the damage and earthquake resistance of different structures.
The team spent 11 days observing damage to apartment buildings, roads, bridges and infrastructure. They also looked into geological evidence from landslides and liquefied sandy deposits.
The research is a collaboration between Canada and Taiwan, and was supported by Air Canada and the Canadian Trade Office. The investigating team included Leon Bell, P.Eng. of Sandwell Consultants, and Patrick Lam, P.Eng. of CWMM Consulting Engineers, both of Vancouver. It also had specialists from the IRC, Public Works and Government Services Canada, Carleton University and the City of Vancouver.
