Various types of damage caused by the devastating 1999 Chi-Chi, Taiwan earthquake were not only experienced in the hanging wall and footwall but also in the southern and northern parts of the Chelungpu fault. In this paper, we determine the coseismic displacements and determine stress relaxation using a rupture model and compare the values with surface damage. The patterns of damage can be clearly correlated with the calculated coseismic displacement and stress relaxation caused by the event. It is found that the surface damage was predominately caused by coseismic deformation and that large-scale landslides were mainly a result of steep coseismic displacements. ¿ 2001 American Geophysical Union