Casualties among children from earthquakes could be reduced after the installation of an earthquake alert system is completed this month, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said yesterday.
Kuo Kai-wen (郭鎧紋), director of the bureau’s seismology center, said the bureau completed the installation of an early earthquake warning system in 3,500 elementary schools nationwide earlier this month, adding that the system is not designed to forecast earthquakes.
“Each school is equipped with a computer system, to which a warning message can be sent within 10 seconds of an earthquake striking,” Kuo said.
“The message only says where the epicenter was, and the computer then estimates the level of intensity caused by the earthquake in that locality,” Kuo added.
“The system could help schools gain about 20 seconds to respond before the secondary earthquake waves [S-Wave] arrives, which cause the most damage,” Kuo said, adding that the system functions best when the epicenter is about 100km away.
Meanwhile, Kuo said that with the installation of many deep-well observatories, the center is now better equipped to identify the location of blind thrust fault lines.
The center has identified about 30 active faults, but there remain many blind thrust faults.
The number of earthquakes below magnitude 1 detected has greatly increased because of the observatories, Kuo said.
According to Kuo, less than 100 magnitude 1 earthquakes were detected per year before 2008.
After the bureau installed the observatories in 2008, the number of detected magnitude 1 earthquakes annually has gradually increased, reaching 4,000 last year.
“Though the magnitude 1 earthquakes do not do much damage, we can still use the number of the earthquakes in certain locations to identify where the blind thrust faults are. It would help build up useful data before a more dangerous earthquake occurs,” he said.
Kuo said that 30 deep-well observatories are currently in use, adding that 11 new ones are scheduled to be opened by the middle of next year.
The bureau plans to gradually expand the number of deep-well observatories to 70, he said.
To build such an observatory, an earthquake detection device must be placed 300m below surface.
It takes about NT$10 million (US$333,600) to build such facilities, including costs of drilling wells, installing broadband transmission networks and other equipment, the bureau said.
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
UPDATED TEST: The new rules aim to assess drivers’ awareness of risky behaviors and how they respond under certain circumstances, the Highway Bureau said Driver’s license applicants who fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections or to check blind spots, or omit pointing-and-calling procedures would fail the driving test, the Highway Bureau said yesterday. The change is set to be implemented at the end of the month, and is part of the bureau’s reform of the driving portion of the test, which has been criticized for failing to assess whether drivers can operate vehicles safely. Sedan drivers would be tested regarding yielding to pedestrians and turning their heads to check blind spots, while drivers of large vehicles would be tested on their familiarity with pointing-and-calling
RSS