NSC show aims to mark disaster

Activities commemorating the 921 earthquake last year were launched by the National Science Council (NSC) yesterday.

There will be one-week exhibitions in Taipei and Kaohsiung, a longer exhibition in Taichung, and a three-day international workshop in Taipei attended by scientists -- specializing in the scientific, technological and social aspects of earthquakes -- from all over the world.

At the opening ceremony of the exhibition in Taipei, titled "2000 Science Week -- Learning About Earthquakes" (2000 科學週 ~ 認識地震), at National Taiwan University (NTU), National Science Council Vice Chairman Wu Maw-kuen (吳茂昆) said the exhibition would not only alert people to the danger of earthquakes, but also provide them with the appropriate disaster prevention knowledge.

Guided by students of geology from NTU and National Central University, students from elementary schools and high schools can learn about plate tectonics and the geology of Taiwan.

The 921 or Chi-chi (after the small town in Nantou county nearest its epicenter) Earthquake (集集大震) is explained by an automatic model, which shows the motion of the thrust fault (逆衝斷層) at the time the temblor hit central Taiwan last year, on Sept. 21.

Scientists have confirmed the earthquake was due to movement of the Chelungpu fault (車籠埔斷層), causing vertical displacements in disaster areas, some as high as five meters.

At the exhibition, every visitor is encouraged to take part in exercises designed to teach them how to protect themselves in the event of an earthquake.

Participants, for example, hide themselves inside a model of a house after packing an earthquake kit (地震包) within 60 seconds. After they have done so, the guides explain what they did correctly and incorrectly and how they could do better.

"Pick up important things which you can carry easily, such as whistles, lighters, bottled water and cookies," a guide told children from kindergartens.

Kindergarten teachers told the Taipei Times that children learned from playing games and these could be important lessons for people living in earthquake-prone areas.

In addition to the exhibition, the science council's National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering (國家地震工程研究中心) launched an international workshop yesterday to present 144 research papers on the scientific, technological and social aspects of earthquake damage.

The Chi-chi Earthquake, with a magnitude of 7.3 on the Richter scale, has had an enormous impact on scientists and engineers internationally.

NSC Chairman Weng Cheng-I (翁政義) said in the preface to a collection of research articles, that it was time for the community of experts in earthquake disaster prevention to share their experiences of earthquake response, recovery and hazard mitigation.'

The exchange of opinions at yesterday's workshop was initiated by research papers given by Japanese scientists Kojiro Irikura and T. Iwata on simulating the ground motion and rupture process of the Chi-chi quake.

Some Taiwanese seismologists said the debate on which model best explained the quake was taking up a lot of time.

During the remainder of the workshops, today and tomorrow, more than 300 scientists will discuss a range of earthquake-related topics, ranging from hydraulic engineering, to damage data analysis, to recovery following Japan's 1995 Kobe Earthquake.