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Earthquake damage in Taichung county

Ji-Ji earthquake (Traditional Chinese: 集集大地震; pinyin: jíjí dàdìzhèn, also known as 921 earthquake) occurred on September 21, 1999 in central Taiwan at 1:47 am local time (September 20 17:47 GMT) and measured 7.3 on the Richter scale. Its epicentre was at 23.87° N latitude, 120.75° E longitude, in Jiji Township (Chi-Chi by Wade-Giles romanization) in Nantou County, about 12.5 km west of the Sun Moon Lake. The depth was 7.0 km.

Damage caused by the earthquake (According to the National Fire Agency, Ministry of the Interior R.O.C):

• 2,415 deaths (including missing people)
• 1,441 severely wounded
• US$9.2 billion worth of damage
• 44,338 houses completely destroyed
• 41,336 houses severely damaged

The earthquake continued to shake Taiwan throughout the night. Anecdotal stories tell of an undestroyed house sliding from one county to another during the quake, forcing the change of the owner's address.

The 921 Earthquake occurred along the Chelungpu fault line in western part of the island of Taiwan. The fault stretches along the foothills of the Central Mountains in Nantou and Taichung counties. Some sections of land near the fault were raised as much as 7 meters (23 feet). Near Dongshih, near the northern end of the fault, a 7-meter tall waterfall was created by the earthquake. Throughout the middle-western part of the island, bridges were destroyed, cutting off traffic for weeks.

In Wufeng, a village in southern Taichung County, the damage was especially devastating; the village's Guangfu High School lay directly on the fault line and was severely damaged by the quake. Today the high school is the site of the National Museum of Natural Science's 921 Earthquake Museum of Taiwan.

• Pictures of Damage Courtesy of Academia Sinica.