Chelungpu Fault
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The Chelungpu Fault (traditional Chinese: 車籠埔斷層; simplified Chinese: 车笼埔断层; pinyin: Chēlóngbù Duàncéng) is an active fault located in Taiwan.[1] It caused the 1999 Jiji earthquake.[2]
1999 Jiji earthquake
The epicenter of the earthquake was Chichi Township. The 1999 Jiji earthquake happened along the Chelungpu fault line in western part of the island of Taiwan. The fault is located along the foothills of the Central Mountains in Nantou and Taichung counties. Some sections of land near the fault were changed in elevation by as much as 7 meters (23 feet). Near the northern end of the fault line, a 7-meter tall waterfall was created by the earthquake. In the middle-western part of the island, bridges were destroyed. This stopped traffic for weeks.[4][5][6]
In Wufeng, a village in southern Taichung County, the damage was very bad. The village's Guangfu High School was located on the fault line. It was badly damaged by the quake. Today the high school is the site of the National Museum of Natural Science's 921 Earthquake Museum of Taiwan.[7][8][9]
The fault was reportedly discovered by Dr. Wen-shan Chen, Professor of Geology at National Taiwan University, in November 2002.[10] To preserve the surface rupture, the Chelungpu Fault Preservation Park was established and opened to the public in 2013.[11]
