A symposium on Meinong Earthquake co-hosted by National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) and the National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering (NCREE) from NARLabs was held on March 21 at NCKU International Conference Hall.
Tainan City Mayor Ching-Te Lai, NCKU President Huey-Jen Jenny Su, NARLabs President Ching-Hua Lo, Director of NCREE Kuo-Chun Chang, and many civil engineers, architecture scholars, and experts gathered together to discuss issues of building structure, safety and management.
Meinong Earthquake, the M6.4 earthquake occurred approximately 30 km northeast of Pingtung City in southern Taiwan. The worst affected city was Tainan, where most of fatalities and injuries concentrated on the collapse site of a 17-story apartment building.
President Su said, 'We did a lot of investigation and collected valuable information to analyze and understand the cause of the quake and what prevention measures we can do.'
NARLabs summarized a brief report of the earthquake and the resulting damage.
Mayor Lai said, 'The symposium organized by NCKU to explore issues related to Meinong Earthquake is very important and will provide valuable information to the city government.
We will work with the university and organizations like NCREE to carry out post-disaster recovery and restoration, Lai added.
NCREE will set up its second experimental facility at NCKU next year, according to President Ching-Hua Lo of NARLabs.
NCREE established in October 1990. Its laboratory, equipped with a tri-axial shaking table, an L-shape reaction wall system, and a large strong floor test bed allows earthquake engineering simulations of structural components or systems in full-scale.