A bigger project
More than nine months after the natural disaster, the NSC initiated PEAR as an inter-governmental project last June. The program has been given a NT$123.5 million budget from the NSC for 49 research proposals. The proposals have been carried out by scientists from a diverse range of governmental agencies, including the NSC, the Central Weather Bureau, the Central Geological Survey and the Water Resource Bureau.
But scientists are still struggling for financial support from the government.
Wang said that scientists from Taiwan, Japan and the US are already planning a proposal to the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program under the UN to request that a deeper hole be dug in Taiwan.
The source of the 921 earthquake has been identified as being eight kilometers under Mingchien township in Nantou. Scientists believe that important information lies in that seismogenic zone (
"If we can drill a five-kilometer hole, we might be able to reveal more secrets buried there and learn more about factors that triggered the 921 earthquake. All countries will benefit from such knowledge," Wang said.
Wang said that such information would be provided as reference for disaster prevention and earthquake prediction for countries sitting on seismic belts.
The international cooperation project, however, still needs to understand Taiwan's basic geological structure. They are currently learning more about this with "deep-sounding seismic-reflection experiments" which are being carried out along the fault line.
To collect this information, six heavy trucks are used to pound the earth's surface near the fault line and 450 receivers located from Taichung to Changhua record waves that bounce back. This experiment is helping scientists draw a detailed geological map of the structure of the fault which can go as deep as 18km underground. A complete map of the Chelungpu Fault will be finished at the end of February.
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