Maybe not the right place to ask, but what’s the tech scene like in Taiwan? Other than TSMC, are there any interesting things going on?
I’m in Kaohsiung but haven’t investigated the scene.
7.4 earthquake in Taiwan, 34km depth
131–140 of 183 posts
Re: 7.4 earthquake in Taiwan, 34km depth
#132Maybe not the right place to ask, but what’s the tech scene like in Taiwan? Other than TSMC, are there any interesting things going on? I’m in Kaohsiung but haven’t investigated the scene.
If you've never visited South East Asia, then Taipei is probably the best first city to visit over there. Nice people, amazing food, many English speakers, easy to navigate. I'm sure there's a tech scene there, but I would visit even if there wasn't.
Re: 7.4 earthquake in Taiwan, 34km depth
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
If it's any consolation, there's not really time to escape a collapsing building from any level, since the bottom floors usually are crushed first and near instantaneously. If you look at pictures from partially collapsed buildings in Hualian you can see that sometimes it's just the bottom floor that's destroyed and the remaining floors are fine for sometimes days or even until the building is manually taken down. Th…
Any data on survivability of occupants of upper floors in cases where the bottom floor is destroyed and the rest of the building settles on top of the rubble instead of pancaking? This is exactly what happened with some apartment blocks in Japan earlier this year, too. I guess it depends a lot on whether the building stays upright or falls over, as there are plenty of objects that can crush a person in any space that…
Which is why the advice has always been to hide under something sturdy, like a table or bed. For the most part, it should break the impact of anything on top falling onto it.
Re: 7.4 earthquake in Taiwan, 34km depth
#134The Circle line has dislodged https://www.setn.com/News.aspx?NewsID=1448651 Live stream of news about the incident: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SydScnOrmf8 There's been pretty big aftershocks like clockwork after, it's gonna be a hard day. My dog is freaked out, my fish tanks are half empty, we're not sure if we can open the restaurant since the MRT is closed and our chef lives quite far, and that's just life in…
To use legacy UX you can put in the watch.
https://youtube.com/shorts/91Rmacvw4ho to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91Rmacvw4ho
Re: 7.4 earthquake in Taiwan, 34km depth
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
Any data on survivability of occupants of upper floors in cases where the bottom floor is destroyed and the rest of the building settles on top of the rubble instead of pancaking? This is exactly what happened with some apartment blocks in Japan earlier this year, too. I guess it depends a lot on whether the building stays upright or falls over, as there are plenty of objects that can crush a person in any space that…
Which is why the advice has always been to hide under something sturdy, like a table or bed. For the most part, it should break the impact of anything on top falling onto it.
Yes, the usual advice is optimized for buildings that stay upright. But this [1] happens, too, surprisingly often with reinforced concrete buildings. A table turned sideways isn't going to stop the fridge that's hurtling toward you.
Ships roll all the time in heavy seas but don't have the problem of loose fridges, because everything is anchored much more strongly than on land. Perhaps that's the kind of standard we should aim for, at least for concrete buildings in earthquake zones with a certain width to height ratio.
[1] First photo in https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2024/01/02/japan/noto-peni...
Re: 7.4 earthquake in Taiwan, 34km depth
#136this guy is right again at predicting these earth quakes: https://twitter.com/ssgeos/status/1775146068079960148
https://twitter.com/rrichcord reminds me of this guy
Re: 7.4 earthquake in Taiwan, 34km depth
#137This was felt pretty strongly in Taipei, some reports of electricity outage too. All my friends and I seem ok though.
I’m also in Taipei. It’s the worst one ever I’ve felt in my life. Staying on the 7th floor with noway to escape in time is probably the worst feeling
The recommendation that I was taught when I took Chinese lessons btw is to stand either below a pillar or a door frame, and to open the doors so that once the initial shaking is over you can escape(for example the door frame might get stuck and then you cannot even escape in case of an emergency).
Most of the collapsed buildings however seem to have not collapsed directly, but rather the foundation seems to have given in, so that if you were above the second floor you would probably have been able to be rescued.
What I found most terrifying is that there are construction sites where material has flown to neighbouring buildings and destroyed parts of them. Imagine your building being up to code and then killing just because your apartment happened to be facing a highrise construction site.
I have a feeling that the injury and death toll will probably take a while to be assessed. This felt genuinely terrifying.
Re: 7.4 earthquake in Taiwan, 34km depth
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
Any data on survivability of occupants of upper floors in cases where the bottom floor is destroyed and the rest of the building settles on top of the rubble instead of pancaking? This is exactly what happened with some apartment blocks in Japan earlier this year, too. I guess it depends a lot on whether the building stays upright or falls over, as there are plenty of objects that can crush a person in any space that…
Which is why the advice has always been to hide under something sturdy, like a table or bed. For the most part, it should break the impact of anything on top falling onto it.
Table or bed? What they teach here locally is to get under a door frame or a pillar. I guess that recommendation has something to do with construction codes. When your walls are made out of light wood a sturdy table might protect you from fractured pieces I guess.
Re: 7.4 earthquake in Taiwan, 34km depth
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
3 m sound not too bad?
It can be a very long wave. If you have a coastal area that is mostly at or very close to sea level then that entire area could now be 3m underwater which is very bad. Also, even under normal conditions the type of wave you would see at the beach with a height of 3m is insanely powerful. I think the highest I have body surfed in was maybe 2-2.5m and if you get caught in the break of the wave you are literally powerle…
My crude understanding and associated mental imagery is that tsunami waves are more like tide than "usual" waves: your typical 3m wave is mostly "surface-ish" in comparison, while 3m tsunami has both greater wavelength and "depth", which is what makes the "usual" wave break quickly when it reaches shore, whereas tsunami waves continue pushing real hard for real long because of all the length * undersurface water you don't see.
Gently shaking a glass of water sideways or blowing upon it won't make much water spill out, but jolt it vertically and most of it goes out real quick.
This is all probably very incorrect physics but it helps drive my intuitive understanding that 3m wave and 3m tsunami are quite different, the former being scary but the latter being muuuuch scarier.
Re: 7.4 earthquake in Taiwan, 34km depth
#140Hoping to start a thread talking about this. Anyone read Richter 10 by Arthur C Clarke. Where California broke away from the mainland.
Think anything in our lifetime will ever match the prediction tech from the book?
I know nothing about earthquakes. Hoping for a HN education!