At a consultation conference on the 921 earthquake held by the Control Yuan yesterday, scientists called on the government to adopt measures that would better prepare the island in the event of earthquakes. They said such measures would include geology-related laws to ensure people's safety and establish an official administrative unit to unite resources in diverse geological disciplines.
Control Yuan member Huang Huang-hsiung (黃?雄), the host of the conference, said yesterday that there are only about 30 professional geological experts in Taiwan. These are distributed among government agencies and private companies such as power plants and oil companies. Thus far, their talents and other resources have not been coordinated effectively.
"Maps of Taiwan's 51 fault lines are currently available in different versions which contain many obvious discrepancies. It is difficult to make corrections to these maps since different versions of the maps are used in research projects," said Chen Hung-yu (
"Scientific education in geology has been ignored for a long time, and it's time to call for the making of geology-related laws to protect people's lives," said Lin Ching-wei (
Scientists said that had people been properly educated, they would not have built houses on fault lines, nor would they have been so terrified by aftershocks. However, experts said strict legislation based on geologic structural considerations would protect people from getting hurt during earthquakes.
They said that basic geological research in Taiwan has been sporadic. While government officials have been making efforts to monitor faults and working towards some form of quake prediction, scientists agree that taking a well-prepared attitude toward unexpected earthquakes is preferable to relying on earthquake prediction.
"We've monitored known active faults, including the cause of the 921 quake -- the Chelungpu Fault (
"Had we established more monitors along the Chelungpu Fault, we could have sensed extraordinary phenomena by calculating concentrations of ions in groundwater and been able to warn people of the quake," added Huang.
According to MOEA documents, the CGS's first period of basic geological investigation into areas in western Taiwan threatened by potential earthquakes, initiated in 1996, is set to be completed by 2002. Further comprehensive studies of important active faults and investigation of faults in remote mountain areas will not be completed for another 10 years.
Huang stressed that monitoring faults is essential because 140 townships, about 40 percent of total townships in Taiwan, are locate exactly on or near fault lines.
In other words, 300,000 people live under threat of disasters caused by unexpected movement along fault lines.
However, some scientists from the academic community do not agree.
"It's not easy to obtain exact positions of faults because they are hidden underground.
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