1999 Jiji earthquake

The Chi-Chi earthquake the great earthquake of September 21)there was an earthquake in central Taiwan. The earthquake happened on September 21, 1999 at 1:47 am local time (September 20 17:47 GMT). It measured 7.3 on the Richter scale. The epicentre of the earthquake was at  in Chichi Township of Nantou County, hovering around the 12.5 km mark west of the Sun Moon Lake. The depth of the epicenter was 7.0 km.

Damage caused
The earthquake caused much damage, according to the National Fire Agency, Ministry of the Interior R.O.C . This damage included:
 NT$300 billion (US $10 billion) worth of damage
 51,711 buildings were completely destroyed
 53,768 buildings were badly damaged

The earthquake continued to shake Taiwan throughout the night. People tell stories about a house that was not destroyed but moved by the earthquake from one county to another. The story says that because of this, the owners of the house had to change their address. The earthquake killed so many people.

Chelungpu fault
The epicenter of the earthquake was Chichi Township. The 921 Earthquake happened along the Chelungpu fault line in western part of the island of Taiwan. The fault is located along the foothills of the Central Mountains in Nantou and Taichung counties. Some sections of land near the fault were changed in elevation by as much as 7 meters (23 feet). Near the northern end of the fault line, a 7-meter tall waterfall was created by the earthquake. In the middle-western part of the island, bridges were destroyed. This stopped traffic for weeks.

In Wufeng, a village in southern Taichung County, the damage was very bad. The village's Guangfu High School was located on the fault line. It was badly damaged by the quake. Today the high school is the site of the National Museum of Natural Science's 921 Earthquake Museum of Taiwan. Landslides were created which in turn caused impromptu formation of lakes.
Notes

References

Other websites

National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering  (NCREE)

 More Info
Category:1999 disasters
Category:1999 in Asia
Category:Earthquakes in Taiwan
Category:Earthquakes in the 1990s
Category:20th century in Taiwan
Category:September events