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Published February 2026 | Version Published
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Introduction to the Special Section on Earthquake Hazards 25 Years After Chi-Chi: Learning from the Past to Prepare for the Future

Creators

  • 1. ROR icon National Taiwan University
  • 2. ROR icon Institute of Earth Sciences, Academia Sinica
  • 3. ROR icon National Dong Hwa University
  • 4. ROR icon California Institute of Technology
  • 5. ROR icon Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris
  • 6. ROR icon King Abdullah University of Science and Technology

Abstract

The 1999 Mw 7.6 Chi‐Chi earthquake struck central Taiwan at 01:47 a.m. local time on 21 September 1999, as one of the most devastating natural disasters in Taiwan’s history and the largest instrumentally recorded event in the country (Shin and Teng, 2001). Its intense ground shaking, extended surface rupture, and widespread damage provided an unprecedented dataset that has profoundly shaped our understanding of fault mechanics and earthquake hazards in active collision zones (e.g., Kao and Chen, 2000; Ma et al., 2006).

Copyright and License

© 2025 Seismological Society of America.

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to extend their sincere gratitude to the BSSA staff for their support throughout the Special Section. The authors also thank all authors who contributed their work to this Special Issue.

Data Availability

Earthquake parameters for events occurring between 1973 and 2025 are available from the Taiwan Seismological and Geophysical Data Management System of the Central Weather Administration (CWA) (https://gdms.cwa.gov.tw/). Information on destructive earthquakes in Taiwan since 1900 can be downloaded from the CWA Seismic Center (https://scweb.cwa.gov.tw/zh-tw/page/disaster/5). Both websites were last accessed in October 2025.

Additional details

Dates

Available
2025-12-17
First online

Caltech Custom Metadata

Caltech groups
Division of Engineering and Applied Science (EAS)
Publication Status
Published