Taiwan Earthquake Building Failures

We Americans have very short attention spans and we can't seem to pay attention to world affairs and the Super Bowl at the same time. Pretzels, nachos and beverages are top of mind, not some earthquake in a faraway nation. Perhaps, after Sunday's game is over, more attention will be shone on events in Taiwan.

For now CNN is reporting, Rescuers scour rubble for survivors after earthquake kills 34 in Taiwan.

The last big Taiwan earthquake was in 1999. It killed many more people than the most recent one reported above.  

What I recall from that previous event is that Taiwan has very good building codes, but it was shoddy building processes that caused buildings in 1999 to collapse. Poor building techniques means that the inspection process is not working as the building goes up. It is too early to know what it is about the apartment buildings that collapsed that made them fail this time. The way in which they "tilted over" to one side reminds me of other earthquakes with buildings that had a similar "list" to them, that the diagnosis was liquefaction as being the cause. The soils below one portion of the building fail and that causes the building to tip to one side.  

Watch for more information to come out in the weeks and months ahead.