The east side of the fault was thrust diagonally upwards, and more or less everyone living along that side was killed or injured. But although the west side was subjected to the same violent shaking, most of the buildings remained shading. "Unusually for an earthquake in Taiwan, there was a clear relationship between the 21 September quake and the Chelungpu fault.
「車籠埔是標準的逆衝斷層，斷層東側（上盤）斜推而上，居民非死即傷；西側（下盤）雖然同樣受到劇震衝擊，建物卻多半不動如山」，王乾盈以「陰陽線」、「生死一線間」來形容。