Date: Tue, 21 Sep 1999 22:23:32 +0900
From: Koji Okumura  Subject: [eq-geo-net 
120] Taiwan historic earthquakes Sender: owner-eq-geo-net@gsjeq.gsj.go.jp 
X-Sender: kojiok@ipc.hiroshima-u.ac.jp
To: eq-geo-net@gsjeq.gsj.go.jp
Reply-to: Koji Okumura  MIME-version: 1.0
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Dear all:

According to Asahi newspaper [iij.asahi.com], the victims of the Taiwan 
earthquake is more than 1500 and 2500 people are still missing as of 21:00 
JMT [GMT +9:00]. 

I made a map of historic seismicity in and around Taiwan in my homepage 
for your information. The epicenters are based on catalogues by Utsu 
(1996, 1998). 

Please visit:


http://www.ipc.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/~kojiok/taiwan.gif

According to Ota and Okada (1984 in Japanese) based on Hsu and Chang 
(1979), major active faults run along the western foot of the Central 
Mountains* and along the longitudinal valley between Coastal Range and 
Central Mountains. Along the western foot, 1906, 1935, 1946 ruptured the 
surface notwithstanding their smaller magnitude.

The epicenter of the Sept-21-1999 earthquake is located in another 
longitudinal valley running through the Central Mountains. The valley is 
obvious from 1 km DEM, but is not clear on 1/50,000 topo maps in the 
epicentral area, maybe owing to severe erosion.

The Sept-21-1999 shock seems to be the largest in central Taiwan [or in 
the proximity of densely inhabited area in western Taiwan], since 1600. 
The relatively smaller magnitude of the earthquakes before 1999 is 
remarkable.


Koji Okumura


---------------------------------------------------------- 
Koji Okumura, Department of Geography
Hiroshima University, Higashi-Hiroshima, 739-8522, JAPAN 
Fax: +81-824-240320, Phone: +81-824-246657 ***** 
http://www.ipc.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/~kojiok/ ***** 
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