Important Lessons From Field Reconnaissance Following the 2016 Meinong Earthquake in Southern Taiwan

Abstract eng:
The M w 6.3 Meinong earthquake, which struck southern Taiwan on February 6, 2016, was characterized by an oblique left lateral strike-slip motion with a minor reverse component. The earthquake occurred at approximately 16 km depth on an unknown fault that did not rupture the ground surface, but rather produced a noticeable long period velocity pulse east to west, with the strongest amplitude motions recorded about 30km west of the epicentral region in Tainan City. Within this city, more than 20 multi-story buildings constructed under relatively modern building codes were severely damaged, including seven that suffered complete collapse. In addition, there was widespread damage associated with liquefaction, a substantial portion of which affected residential buildings causing large uniform and differential settlement, the later causing severe tilt to buildings in many cases. In response to this event, local earthquake professionals, faculty members, and students teamed with US NSF-sponsored Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance (GEER) members visited the affected area to document the geologic/geotechnical effects and to assess seismic performance of infrastructure [1,2]. Unique to past efforts, US-Taiwan reconnaissance team members utilized unmanned aerial vehicles and LiDAR in several areas to guide the field data collection efforts and assist with post-reconnaissance data interpretation. This paper presents important lessons learned from this event, focusing particularly on 1) the impact of marginally liquefiable soils on shallow foundations and in particular foundation detailing aspects which led to good performance and 2) the advantages of using remote sensing tools to offer insight into important features of earthquake performance post-event.

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