TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Video surfaced on Monday (Sept. 19) showing the Taipei 101 damper swaying substantially during the magnitude 6.8 earthquake that struck on Sunday (Sept. 18).
At 2:44 p.m. on Sunday, a magnitude 6.8 quake struck 42.7 kilometers north of Taitung County Hall. A netizen captured footage of Taipei 101's tuned mass damper (TMD) and posted it on the Facebook group Breaking News Commune (爆料公社).
The damper can be seen swaying significantly as visitors gasp with astonishment. The netizen who posted the video wrote that the damper had moved 20 centimeters.
If this figure is true, it would tie with the 20 centimeters the damper swayed on April 18, 2019 for the largest movement in its history due to an earthquake. The most the damper has ever moved was at 6:59 a.m. on Aug. 8, 2015, when it swayed by 100 centimeters due to powerful wind gusts from Typhoon Soudelor.
However, the official amount by which the device moved is unknown as Taipei 101 announced on Oct. 24, 2021 that it would no longer publish data on the TMD's movements. According to the Taipei 101 website, the TMD is suspended from the 92nd to the 87th floors, has a diameter of 5.5 meters, and weighs 660 tons.
The function of Taipei 101's damper ball, which is the largest in the world, is to offset movements by the building caused by strong wind gusts or earthquakes. The maximum designed swing of the giant pendulum is 150 centimeters.
