the preliminary tremors, the main portion and the end portion, and visited areas after major earthquakes to ground verify the data collected by his instruments. Omori arrived in Japanese Formosa (Taiwan) shortly after the 17 March 1906 Meishan earthquake, later describing soil liquefaction and the complete destruction of Meishan town. He ascribed the high number of casualties due to structure collapse of the dominant local building type: sun-dried brick walls loosely cemented with mud and overlaid by heavy roof beams.