LOS ANGELES — Earlier this week, a 7.4-magnitude earthquake rocked the island of Taiwan, causing some damage to structures and numerous casualties.

The tremor was the country's strongest since 1999, when a 7.7-magnitude quake killed more than 2,000 people and destroyed thousands of buildings.

Since then, engineers around the world have researched and implemented strategies to better prepare structures to withstand powerful seismic activity.