As we near the 1oth anniversary of the 9.21.99 earthquake in Taiwan, we decided to take a morning trip to the museum to show Ailey what we lived through and perhaps prep her for her first, inevitable earthquake. They have a room that replicates the feel of the quake that night, which 2000 residents of Taichung and the surrounding areas lost their lives. The museum was a nice mix of memorial and science.
The fault line passed right through the middle of a junior high school in Wufeng, a suburb of Taichung. The shifting of earth was just mind blowing, as these images of the track above and at right show.
The quake registered Ms 7.6 Richter and Ml 7.3 Richter. Not completely clear what the difference between the two Richters are but it was a monster. It was also very, very shallow at only 1km deep and centered just 20km outside of Taichung city. The quake lasted 40 seconds but the aftershocks, registering as high as 6.8, continued for over a week.
