Geologist at the Institute of Earth Sciences at Taiwan's Academia Sinica, say seismic activity historically had been low in the Taipei basin, but has experienced more micro-earthquakes (of magnitude 2.0-2.5 on the Richter scale) since construction began on the 508 meter (1,667 foot) skyscraper in 1997. "There is a distinct possibility of earthquakes being triggered by the recent construction of the world's highest building, the imposing Taipei 101," Lin Cheng-horng wrote in an article published in the Geophysical Research Letters Vol. 32 on Nov. 30. Earthquakes occur frequently in Taiwan, which lies on a seismically active stretch of the Pacific basin, but Taipei itself has suffered minimal tremors in the past as it lies over the western boundary of the Philippine Sea plate. Lin said Taipei 101 weighed 700,000 tons and estimated stress from vertical loading on its foundation at 4.7 bars, of which some would be transferred to the earth's upper crust due to extremely soft sedimentary rocks beneath the Taipei basin. "If a fault is about to crack, then a little pressure can trigger an earthquake. It's like the last straw that breaks the camel's back," Lin told Reuters in a telephone interview." http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/12/02/taipei.tower.reut/index.html
Dams have the same effect--put a trillion tons of water behind 'em and watch the earthquakes start to happen...
Better keep a video camera on that. It might be the first skyscraper in the world that anyone gets to see toppling over on its side.
Yeah, That's exactly what I'm saying. I think it was one of the most stupidist ideas in the world to build the tallest skyscraper on Earth in Taiwan: a country notorious for its annual earthquakes.
That may be related as much to lubrication of the fault planes by leaking water as to the additional stress.
There's a reverse thrust plate right off the west coast. Numeruous annual earthquakes are a fact of life in Taiwan: not a season goes by without earthquakes and cyclones.
