In the early morning hours of September 21, 1999, the island of Taiwan was shaken awake by a powerful earthquake.

Within a day, more than 1,500 people were killed and 3,800 injured as Taiwan was rocked by its strongest earthquake this century.

This sparked off a rescue effort in September which saw many international rescue teams, from countries such as Singapore and U.S trying to free hundreds buried alive.

Hardly a building was left untouched in the worst hit areas as Taiwan experienced a quake that measured almost 8.1 on the Richter scale. Many highrise flats full of sleeping residents crashed to the ground.

After the quake, the country needed temporary shelters to relieve the estimated 100,000 homeless. Several thousand troops were deployed to help rescue workers and medical teams swamped with casualties.

To make it worse for medical staff, Taiwan suffered from widespread power cuts which were estimated to affect 5.6 million households.

Seismotectonic Summary for the MW 7.6 Taiwan Earthquake of September 21, 1999

This earthquake occurred near the center of Taiwan, about 160 kilometers (100 miles) SSW of the capital city of Taipei, and at 01:47 am local time. It was a shallow (~5 km) thrust earthquake, caused by the collision between the Philippine Sea and Eurasian plates.

Most of Taiwan's seismicity is at this island's eastern side. Thus the inland location of the 9-21-99 earthquake, shown by the red dot in the figure, is unusual. Because of this earthquake's location, there was minimal tsunami risk, but high risk to regional population centers.

Earthquakes with magnitude greater than or equal to 5.0, occurring between 1964 and 1995. Most large earthquakes are located east of Taiwan and have caused minimal damage. This situation is unlike the 9-20-99 earthquake and aftershocks, which are located in the central part of the island.
(Reference: Kao, H., Shen, S. and Ma, K.-F., 1998, Transition from oblique subduction to collision: Earthquakes in the southernmost Ryukyu arc-Taiwan region, J. Geophysical Research 103, 7211-7229.)

Taiwan's Tectonic Environment