Pretty scary scenes from taiwan. And i saw a video from japan with the water receding from the shore. Could be another tsunami
Edit: tsunami warning downgraded
It's horrible, but I gotta say,
those buildings at the last clip held up incredibly well. The foundation gave away but the rest of the structure still holds together despite falling at an intense angle.
really gotta hand it to the generations of humans to think up that kind of structural engineering
Look up the inside of the Taipei 101 for some insane engineering, the enormous multi-ton balancing ball hanging in the top floors that sways to counter act the shaking of an earth quake
I can understand the physics of how this helps keep a building upright.. but what I can't fathom is how they determine that a buildings sway isn't wreaking havoc on structural integrity even over a short period of time.
Especially at the lower levels.. how does the concrete or whatever materials used not crack and disintegrate?
It's crazy to think about. Assuming a perfectly rigid structure, this damper should absorb 100% of the energy. But, like you are saying, nothing is perfectly rigid. Over time these stresses do wear on buildings, which is probably why the foundation failed on the lesser building, despite it having such a small mechanical advantage compared to the tall one. These dampers do so much, and are essentially to ANY building of that height, regardless of location.
don't know about buildings but the max allowable deflection of a light pole under full load is 15%. So a 100 ft light pole is considered okay if under full load it bends 15 ft. That said by the time wind blows a light pole 15% of it's height the lights are going to be gone reducing the load of the pole. I designed them for 30 years and I only had two 'fail' but that was because an f2 tornado ran right over them.
Hi, structural engineer here. The last building had a weak story collapse…. The entire ground floor pancaked. That does not constitute “holding up incredibly well”; anyone occupying the ground floor is likely dead. It is very common on older structures where an “open and inviting” ground floor architecture is desired.
I think people won’t be surprised by this,It looks like it was built before 1999 ,so it wasn’t up to code,TW reformed their code after 1999 Jiji Earthquakes that killed 2400+ people.
Suppose you're right. Apologies for the in-correction. I guess I have a hard time differentiating. in that the two are inextricably intwined to some extent. It's also been some time since I've had to worry about that..
Yea no worries: weak story is defined as lateral *strength* of a story being less than 80% of the floor above it, whereas soft story is defined as lateral *stiffness* of a story being less than 70% of the story above it (or less than 80% of the three stories above). And you’re right that if the same LFRS is used then strength and stiffness are often directly correlated. Where you often see soft stories WITHOUT weak stories is kinda like my original comment (hence the confusion) where the architect wants open first floor so we might structurally transition from shear walls above to moment frames below. The moment frames might have adequate strength but be too flexible which could exacerbate p-δ effects.
Taipei 101 (the tallest building in the vid)has a huge ass counterweight (damper) at the top of it, that swings around instead of the building. I'm curious to see how that thing looked during all this.
I was thinking the exact same thing. When you compare the damage in Taiwan with the big earthquake in Turkey from last year, there’s no denying the incredible engineering employed in Taiwan.
yup, and the fact how people just went about their day like it wasn't the biggest earthquake in 25+ years. They basically wiped this earthquake off their shoulder. My uncle in Taipei said the quake spilled half his bowl of soy milk!
https://preview.redd.it/dinlvk21j7sc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=46e4797100eb6830bfc21658859b3e0bca1db849
That elevator is crazy fast also, surprised me.
Anyone know what the max level earthquake is that Taipei 101 can withstand? That damper ball looked pretty close to maxed out on the 6.8 video, I’d imagine 7+ is pushing its limits already.
It was designed to withstand any earthquake that could conceivably occur during the lifetime of the building, so at least 8. It is probably the safest building in Taiwan and was advertised as such during construction.
Not all pictures shown here are from Taipei. The tilted building is in Hualian as far as I know, the nearest city to the center of the earthquake. I am in Taichung right now on the West Coast, and it was still quite shaky. First earthquake experience of my life.
When I was in Taiwan for 10 weeks last year I visited Hualien. The very first night I was there an earthquake hit lol. Small, but big enough to be heard and felt. Was the first sizable earthquake I’ve experienced. Beautiful place and cannot recommend more going to Taroko national park near there.
Hualien has an average of 12,000 earthquakes a year and more than 300 felt earthquakes, so you have the chance to experience one every 1.2 days on average.
If anyone else is out of the loop: [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/03/taiwan-earthquake-magnitude-tsunami-warning-japan-okinawa](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/03/taiwan-earthquake-magnitude-tsunami-warning-japan-okinawa)
Wow. Any death toll is terrible, but 9 seems incredibly low given the multiple buildings that appear to have almost fallen over here... I'm sure that number will rise in the days to come, sadly.
We only have 1 person who died from building collapse. Most of them were hit by falling rocks in mountainous areas. It is more difficult to find missing victims in mountainous areas. But it won’t increase the number of victims too much
My best memory visiting Taiwan 101 was taking a piss in the restroom of the restaurant at the top. I can't imagine doing that during a 7.5 mag earthquake, must be terrifying and amazing, and messy - as i'd surely wet and/or shit myself.
Yeah, and skyscrapers are designed to withstand high winds....but that doesn't mean feeling the sway is any easier/less scary. This is that on steroids.
Bud. The damper, like the name suggests, dampens external forces. Whatever you imagine you feel, it's a lot less than that. Going over a bumpy road feels different in a Ferrari than it does in a Rolls Royce.
I know someone who was near the top of a building during a small earthquake, decently far away from the epicenter of a mag 6. It was, by all accounts, absolutely terrifying and a bit traumatizing.
The buildings are designed to sway like that during an earthquake, so they don't collapse, but being in one... 😬
(ETA I say "small" because at that distance from the epicenter, the building wasn't getting anything near mag 6.)
I worked in a workplace where they merged two separate buildings, each equipped with its own structural mechanism. During an earthquake, the buildings shifted in opposing directions, causing a fissure to form at their junction. I don't think this was legal, but It was undeniably a frightening experience.
Seriously, aside from the lower levels getting destroyed, those mfs look *sturdy*
I'm amazed by how held together the upper parts of their structures look.
Yeah, take in consider that Taiwan went through the infamous 1999/9/21 earthquake, this definetely helpes, the buildings in Taiwan were built to withstand intense quake.
Only one death reported so far and 26 buildings damaged. Will be more deaths for sure, but this seems like it could have been a whole lot worse. Edit: also the nuclear power stations are undamaged. So far this looks manageable for Taiwan. The last thing we want is for China to have a “humanitarian” excuse to move their army into Taiwan
fwiw Taiwan revamped their building code after the 921 earthquake which 100% helped with the low death numbers today. Not to mention it was a 7.8 magnitude quake vs 7.4, which is nearly 4x stronger.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_Jiji_earthquake
7.4 and 7.8 is a x4 difference in strength? Damn thats interesting, knew the scale isn't linear but didn't expect that steep increase.
Thanks for the info
The epicentre was on the east coast in Hualien ,I’ve contacted someone who lives in Taipei and there are still aftershocks even now but they’re in the clear ,their nearest island lost half a peak and many old buildings started collapsing, water level went up 12 inches but they’re in the clear ,no tsunami warnings.
Those buildings are built to withstand so much you don't even see them cracking just an awning fell. Even the building that fell over was still roughly structurally sound it didn't crumble to pieces.
I’m lucky to live in Australia where I’ve never had to deal with a scary situations like this. It’s just something I can’t comprehend, or try to simulate in my brain, I just can’t imagine my whole world shaking.
That's such impressive build quality... it looks like a lego house that popped right off. In my country (won't shame names) you'd be hard pressed to find two bricks still attached to one another.
What's crazy is that's a huge earthquake. Compared to 3rd world countries this seems like minimal damage and casualties. If America got hit with a 7.4 at a major city....I'm expecting catastrophic.
American insurance companies are quite aware of mass dampeners for skyscrapers and any building that has significant earthquake risk is going to need one in order to be insured
Pretty scary scenes from taiwan. And i saw a video from japan with the water receding from the shore. Could be another tsunami Edit: tsunami warning downgraded
It's horrible, but I gotta say, those buildings at the last clip held up incredibly well. The foundation gave away but the rest of the structure still holds together despite falling at an intense angle. really gotta hand it to the generations of humans to think up that kind of structural engineering
Look up the inside of the Taipei 101 for some insane engineering, the enormous multi-ton balancing ball hanging in the top floors that sways to counter act the shaking of an earth quake
I can't wait to see the videos of the ball moving inside, it looks so cool
From a previous shake https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tkz6b7Q3dRk
Wow, and this is 4× greater than that!
would be crazy if they miscalculated and that thing crashes straight through the wall demolishing the building
I can understand the physics of how this helps keep a building upright.. but what I can't fathom is how they determine that a buildings sway isn't wreaking havoc on structural integrity even over a short period of time. Especially at the lower levels.. how does the concrete or whatever materials used not crack and disintegrate?
Buildings move. There is a tolerable level of plasticity.
It's crazy to think about. Assuming a perfectly rigid structure, this damper should absorb 100% of the energy. But, like you are saying, nothing is perfectly rigid. Over time these stresses do wear on buildings, which is probably why the foundation failed on the lesser building, despite it having such a small mechanical advantage compared to the tall one. These dampers do so much, and are essentially to ANY building of that height, regardless of location.
They engineer these buildings to sway in the wind, if they were fully rigid, they would snap.
I just mean perfect transfer of energy via an earthquake. Of course, a building made entirely of glass, say, would be a bad idea.
don't know about buildings but the max allowable deflection of a light pole under full load is 15%. So a 100 ft light pole is considered okay if under full load it bends 15 ft. That said by the time wind blows a light pole 15% of it's height the lights are going to be gone reducing the load of the pole. I designed them for 30 years and I only had two 'fail' but that was because an f2 tornado ran right over them.
It’s called the “damper baby” and they have cute anime versions of it (for sale)
Here it is in action. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tkz6b7Q3dRk
Thats extremely cute!
https://www.taipei-101.com.tw/en/explore/damperbaby If you want to check them out
Hi, structural engineer here. The last building had a weak story collapse…. The entire ground floor pancaked. That does not constitute “holding up incredibly well”; anyone occupying the ground floor is likely dead. It is very common on older structures where an “open and inviting” ground floor architecture is desired.
I think people won’t be surprised by this,It looks like it was built before 1999 ,so it wasn’t up to code,TW reformed their code after 1999 Jiji Earthquakes that killed 2400+ people.
Correction: soft story, not weak story. And yes, that's an utter failure condition that we absolutely avoid in modern design.
Both, right? weak story is evident because it’s the only one that failed.
Suppose you're right. Apologies for the in-correction. I guess I have a hard time differentiating. in that the two are inextricably intwined to some extent. It's also been some time since I've had to worry about that..
Yea no worries: weak story is defined as lateral *strength* of a story being less than 80% of the floor above it, whereas soft story is defined as lateral *stiffness* of a story being less than 70% of the story above it (or less than 80% of the three stories above). And you’re right that if the same LFRS is used then strength and stiffness are often directly correlated. Where you often see soft stories WITHOUT weak stories is kinda like my original comment (hence the confusion) where the architect wants open first floor so we might structurally transition from shear walls above to moment frames below. The moment frames might have adequate strength but be too flexible which could exacerbate p-δ effects.
Expertly explained!
Taipei 101 (the tallest building in the vid)has a huge ass counterweight (damper) at the top of it, that swings around instead of the building. I'm curious to see how that thing looked during all this.
They're definitely videos of prior earthquakes that show it moving around its mighty Impressive I say.
I was thinking the exact same thing. When you compare the damage in Taiwan with the big earthquake in Turkey from last year, there’s no denying the incredible engineering employed in Taiwan.
yup, and the fact how people just went about their day like it wasn't the biggest earthquake in 25+ years. They basically wiped this earthquake off their shoulder. My uncle in Taipei said the quake spilled half his bowl of soy milk!
Not America lol wooden planks for millions of dollars.
That ball inside must be swinging side to side trying to keep the building from falling over
I reckon it makes the Taipai skyscraper one of the safest places to be in a earthquake
Yeah apparently this is a thing. Many skyscrapers are especially built for this, while something like a mid-rise condo wouldn't necessarily be.
I'd rather be on the beach
During an earthquake, great place to be. A bit after, oh boy.
This is the most *ahktually* Reddit thread, mods lock this up ffs
Why?
So about that… you may want to look up the concept of liquefaction.
LOL this gif response made me burst out laughing 🤣 😂
There was Tsunami which is even worse
Best place to be is on top of a hill or out in the open on the countryside away from he city.
Tsunami
I'd rather be on a weathered mountain ridge with a low slope angle lol
https://preview.redd.it/dinlvk21j7sc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=46e4797100eb6830bfc21658859b3e0bca1db849 That elevator is crazy fast also, surprised me.
What ball, like a pendulum or something?
Yes. Taipei 101 has a tuned mass damper. 660 tonne ball that works to counteract any horizontal movement in the tower.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tkz6b7Q3dRk
Anyone know what the max level earthquake is that Taipei 101 can withstand? That damper ball looked pretty close to maxed out on the 6.8 video, I’d imagine 7+ is pushing its limits already.
It was designed to withstand any earthquake that could conceivably occur during the lifetime of the building, so at least 8. It is probably the safest building in Taiwan and was advertised as such during construction.
I seem to recall a crane falling off it in an earthquake during its construction and crushing a car beneath it.
the crane did not have a mass damper
We didn't hear the whole story. What did the car do to the scykyscraper before that?
I’d love to see video from inside there during this one.
if I had massive swinging steel balls, I wouldn't fall over easy too
Quite literally the purpose of the "ball" (tuned mass damper), so yes.
Not all pictures shown here are from Taipei. The tilted building is in Hualian as far as I know, the nearest city to the center of the earthquake. I am in Taichung right now on the West Coast, and it was still quite shaky. First earthquake experience of my life.
You picked a good one for your first. I'll be a while before you feel one like that again.
> I'll be a while before you feel one like that agai Yeah, sure, jinx it why don't you.
Ooop, sorry!
When I was in Taiwan for 10 weeks last year I visited Hualien. The very first night I was there an earthquake hit lol. Small, but big enough to be heard and felt. Was the first sizable earthquake I’ve experienced. Beautiful place and cannot recommend more going to Taroko national park near there.
Hualien has an average of 12,000 earthquakes a year and more than 300 felt earthquakes, so you have the chance to experience one every 1.2 days on average.
If anyone else is out of the loop: [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/03/taiwan-earthquake-magnitude-tsunami-warning-japan-okinawa](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/03/taiwan-earthquake-magnitude-tsunami-warning-japan-okinawa)
Thank you.
Hope there not too many casualties. 🙏
Over 900, at least 9 dead
Wow. Any death toll is terrible, but 9 seems incredibly low given the multiple buildings that appear to have almost fallen over here... I'm sure that number will rise in the days to come, sadly.
***"At least"***
Sure, it's also "at least" 1. I'm just surprised the confirmed count isn't already much higher.
We only have 1 person who died from building collapse. Most of them were hit by falling rocks in mountainous areas. It is more difficult to find missing victims in mountainous areas. But it won’t increase the number of victims too much
Only the video of the Taipei 101 is from Taipei. The other videos are from Hualien (the center of the quake).
[удалено]
My best memory visiting Taiwan 101 was taking a piss in the restroom of the restaurant at the top. I can't imagine doing that during a 7.5 mag earthquake, must be terrifying and amazing, and messy - as i'd surely wet and/or shit myself.
Pretty sure that gigantic ball in the middle of the tower was built for earthquakes and wind.
Yeah, and skyscrapers are designed to withstand high winds....but that doesn't mean feeling the sway is any easier/less scary. This is that on steroids.
I was in the grand Hyatt Tokyo during a pretty small(4.somethimg?) earthquake and I swear the way that thing moves I thought I was going to die.
Bud. The damper, like the name suggests, dampens external forces. Whatever you imagine you feel, it's a lot less than that. Going over a bumpy road feels different in a Ferrari than it does in a Rolls Royce.
I know someone who was near the top of a building during a small earthquake, decently far away from the epicenter of a mag 6. It was, by all accounts, absolutely terrifying and a bit traumatizing. The buildings are designed to sway like that during an earthquake, so they don't collapse, but being in one... 😬 (ETA I say "small" because at that distance from the epicenter, the building wasn't getting anything near mag 6.)
I worked in a workplace where they merged two separate buildings, each equipped with its own structural mechanism. During an earthquake, the buildings shifted in opposing directions, causing a fissure to form at their junction. I don't think this was legal, but It was undeniably a frightening experience.
Oh wow, that really does seem illegal.
Why is that your best memory?
food was meh. had better from street hawkers.
oh i missread, i thought u were saying going for a piss was the best part of ur trip to Taiwan lol
I’m pretty sure my gigantic ball dangling in the toilet bowl while shitting will help with balancing.
It's crazy how only 4 died from a 7.4 earthquake, compared to other earthquakes that happened recently.
More modern building codes.
Seriously, aside from the lower levels getting destroyed, those mfs look *sturdy* I'm amazed by how held together the upper parts of their structures look.
Yeah, take in consider that Taiwan went through the infamous 1999/9/21 earthquake, this definetely helpes, the buildings in Taiwan were built to withstand intense quake.
Taiwans's a proper first world country
Is it possible this is just the current death count? Seems really low.
It's gone up to 9, but it's unlikely to go much higher. The evacuation effort is almost over by now.
Oh good, that's a relief that the death count is low. Awful for the individuals who died though. Must have been a panic inducing death.
Almost all were killed by rock falls on roads/hiking trails.
the videos of the landslides are absolutely terrifying. https://www.reddit.com/r/taiwan/comments/1bujlxz/not_a_good_day_to_be_hiking_in_taiwan/
Only one death reported so far and 26 buildings damaged. Will be more deaths for sure, but this seems like it could have been a whole lot worse. Edit: also the nuclear power stations are undamaged. So far this looks manageable for Taiwan. The last thing we want is for China to have a “humanitarian” excuse to move their army into Taiwan
Taiwanese engineering shines and saves lives
7 reported deaths now
Yikes! Incredible that that 1500 foot building withstood such a rattle no problem.
Wonder what the 101 ball was doing
A great job and keeping that building standing!
Didn’t we have to deal with this just a few months ago? That’s terrible.
It's the ring of fire. southeast asia gets tons of earthquakes.
Why don’t I see people trying to get out of windows
Linux has too steep a learning curve and MacOS is expensive.
because they're simply used to windows
Of all the places ... Taiwan can't catch a break these days.
Eh, it's mostly just a Wednesday here.
Just looking at some of the damage and yes you do not want to be on the first floor for an earthquake like this.
Imagine being asleep in that building when the earthquake hits and you wake up in a '60s Batman villain lair.
Hurry if we keep posting it to every sub Reddit we can farm more karma !
Building codes for the win.
👎👎👎👎👎
#StopEarthquakes
Leave it to earthquakes to shake things up.
Yeah thumbs down to nature. It might help.
Absolutely insane, hope everyone is safe
/u/stabbot
7 deaths. Turkey 50.000 deaths. Erdoğan should be committed for crimes against humanity for allowing all the corrupt building without quality control
fwiw Taiwan revamped their building code after the 921 earthquake which 100% helped with the low death numbers today. Not to mention it was a 7.8 magnitude quake vs 7.4, which is nearly 4x stronger. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_Jiji_earthquake
7.4 and 7.8 is a x4 difference in strength? Damn thats interesting, knew the scale isn't linear but didn't expect that steep increase. Thanks for the info
Hope all are ok
Visiting Taipei from Germany the last days. Was a crazy experience this morning while I was still in my bed.
Did this hurst happen? I never watch the news
The epicentre was on the east coast in Hualien ,I’ve contacted someone who lives in Taipei and there are still aftershocks even now but they’re in the clear ,their nearest island lost half a peak and many old buildings started collapsing, water level went up 12 inches but they’re in the clear ,no tsunami warnings.
This is the footage I wanted to see and that amazing ball system inside Taipei 101
When was this?
4/3/2024 8ish AM Taiwan local time
7.4 is fucking intense.
I wish that ray didn't die *ray from kai cenat*
Easy bro you just need to shake in rhythm with the earthquake and you won’t even feel the mf
Those buildings are built to withstand so much you don't even see them cracking just an awning fell. Even the building that fell over was still roughly structurally sound it didn't crumble to pieces.
Misleading location tag in the top corner. Most of the footage is from outside of Taipei. Most likely Hualien or somewhere on the east coast.
The side ways building giving *I Am Legend* vibes
I’m lucky to live in Australia where I’ve never had to deal with a scary situations like this. It’s just something I can’t comprehend, or try to simulate in my brain, I just can’t imagine my whole world shaking.
Give those engineers a damn raise Holy shiet.
Prayers for all involved
Remote controlled tanks with hydraulic jacks might be useful in shoring up those leaning buildings.
Tayvan halkına geçmiş olsun dileklerimi sunuyorum ♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️
Lot of earthquakes happwning
I’m amazed by the buildings that *DIDN’T* fall. Probably a lot to learn from those structures lol.
The building is sideways but not a single window is cracked, that is astonishing building integrity
That's such impressive build quality... it looks like a lego house that popped right off. In my country (won't shame names) you'd be hard pressed to find two bricks still attached to one another.
I want to see a video of Taipei 101's Mass dampener during this.
How will this effect the trout population?
China is nutting there pants right now.
If this happens in Hispanic America, there are at least 20,000 dead, the buildings are very precarious.
Holy shit that's crazy. I was there just 2 weeks ago
My dad is fireman (usar) and it is nothing big like last year in turkey
hmmmm...wish I would have thought to reestablish care in the VA pim
Taiwan is a strong willed country. They will survive this.
It would be *insane* to see the massive damper balancing Taipei 101 during an intense earthquake like this. What a feat of engineering.
Chinese upgraded weather machine caused this?
Holy shit I heard about it but I didn’t think it was that bad those poor people
They were not joking when they said Made in Taiwan is better than Made China.
Yikes. Praying for Taiwan!
China is starting to invade
Hope ray is alright KAI fly him to you
What's crazy is that's a huge earthquake. Compared to 3rd world countries this seems like minimal damage and casualties. If America got hit with a 7.4 at a major city....I'm expecting catastrophic.
American insurance companies are quite aware of mass dampeners for skyscrapers and any building that has significant earthquake risk is going to need one in order to be insured
American isn't a 3rd world country. Our regulations and building codes would ensure minimal damage.
The 1989 World Series earthquake begs to differ.
34 years ago. Hmmmm. Something tells me most 34 year old buildings in other countries wouldn't fair so well. Our standards have increased since then.
Right, so assuming all buildings that existed before then have been completely retrofitted, no problem!
Wrong
Yes you are.
Sorry, dropped my wallet.
Did your balls drop, too?
Earthquake weapon*
Op just lost china points
I'm very worried Communist China may take advantage of their weakness and disruption and invade. 😥
why does this shit only happen in democratic countries. why doesn't this shit ever happen in Moscow or St. Petersburg
I mean it's not in the ring of fire
They didn't teach you aabout tectonic plates in school?
Do you want other people to die?
Xi in Beijing like: 
And then the Chinese are gonna invade them at the same time.
That's exactly what I was thinking when this happened.