More than 1,000km2 of land has been added to an online government database of areas prone to soil liquefaction, a Ministry of Economic Affairs statement said yesterday.
The statement, issued by the Central Geological Survey, includes information on up to 1,667.6km2 of land in northern Tainan, northern and southern Kaohsiung, the Hengchun Plain in Pingtung County and Hualien County.
The database went online on March 14, 2016, and was updated on Dec. 16 that year to cover Taipei, New Taipei City, Hsinchu City, Hsinchu County, Taichung, Changhua County, Chiayi City, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, parts of Tainan, parts of Kaohsiung, Pingtung County and Yilan County, the statement said.
After the most recent update, the database now covers soil liquefaction information on about 7,900km2 of land, the statement said.
People can visit www.moeacgs.gov.tw to check if their home is in a soil liquefaction-prone area.
Different colors are used to represent levels of vulnerability, with green representing low vulnerability, yellow representing medium vulnerability and red representing high vulnerability.
Soil liquefaction occurs when shaking during an earthquake causes saturated granular material to behave like a liquid.
The condition became an issue of public concern when it was believed to have been a factor in the collapse of a building and the subsequent death of 117 people in a magnitude 6.4 earthquake that struck southern Taiwan on Feb. 6, 2016.
The database is to be updated again next year to include information for Keelung, Taoyuan, Miaoli County, Nantou County and Taitung County, the statement added.
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