Terr. Atmos. Ocean. Sci., Vol. 19, No. 6, 641-651, December 2008 |
doi: 10.3319/TAO.2008.19.6.641(PT) |
1. Institute of Geophysics, National Central University
2. National
Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering, NARL
3.National S&T Center for Disaster Reduction, NARL
Abstract
Two consecutive large earthquakes eight minutes apart
occurred offshore of Hengchun, Pingtung County of Taiwan at night on 26
December 2006. The seismic intensity in the Kaohsiung and Pingtung areas
reached 5 according to the Central Weather Bureau's intensity scale making
them the strongest earthquakes in the Hengchun area in a century. These
earthquakes were felt throughout Taiwan. Because the earthquakes were
located not far offshore, seismic instruments at the Taipowers Nuclear Power
Plant No.3 (NPP3) registered their largest motions since recording
commenced at the site. As a result, unit 2 of NPP3 was shut down while Unit
1 remained operating at full capacity. Other damage that occurred during the
Earthquake Doublet included building collapse, rock falls, structure and
non-structural damage to buildings, fire, and damage to utilities such as
gas, electricity, and telephone lines; liquefaction was also noted. In this
paper, the shakemaps based on the source parameters and real-time
observations were predicted and compared with the recorded shakemaps. This
analysis shows our shakemap prediction model to be extremely useful in
predicting what emergency response units can expect after a large damaging
earthquake. Strong motion data near a collapsed building was used to
calculate the response spectrum and compared with the building codes to
check the reason of the building collapsed. This study presents the damage
that occurred during this event and the results of the seismic assessment to
discuss why so much damage occurred in the southern Taiwan area.
Keywords: Shakemap, Response spectrum, Building code
Citation: Wen, K. L., Y. W. Chang, C. M. Lin, H. J. Chiang, and M. W. Huang, 2008: Damage and ground motion of the 26 December 2006 Pingtung earthquakes, Taiwan. Terr. Atmos. Ocean. Sci., 19, 641-651, doi: 10.3319/TAO.2008.19.6.641(PT)