Moment 508-metre high Taipei 101 building sways as earthquake hits Taiwan. The force of the quake was such that it could be felt in Shanghai, around 500 miles to the north of the epicentre, as per intitial reports.
Taipei 101, Taiwan's tallest building, is pictured swaying during. Its massive weight pulls instinctively in the opposite direction of the swayingTaiwan has been hit by its strongest earthquake in 25 years, killing at least nine people, toppling buildings and even triggering tsunami warnings.
As the building moves in one direction, the steel sphere sways in the other direction and maintains the building's overall balance. 'This steel sphere rests on damping devices which are designed to dampen the relative sway movement between the structure and the sphere, acting in a similar way to the shock absorbers in car suspensions,' he told MailOnline.
'These movements are not dangerous to the structure itself, but, if excessive can lead to discomfort to occupants.'Key to the building's amazing structural integrity is a 660 metric ton golden sphere that hangs from the 92nd floor - the 'tuned mass damper' It was designed to resemble a bamboo shoot rising upwards in eight sections – looking like a series of square buckets stacked one on top of the other.
Taiwan is one country especially prone to earthquakes because it's close to where two tectonic plates meet – the Philippine Sea plate and the Eurasian plate. This photo taken by Taiwan's Central News Agency on April 3, 2024 shows a damaged building in Hualien, after a major earthquake hit Taiwan's east
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