A magnitude 5.9 earthquake struck off Taiwan’s east coast at 3:24am yesterday, the Central Weather Bureau said, adding that the nation has seen more active and frequent seismic activity this year.
The hypocenter of yesterday’s earthquake was 59.3km east of Hualien County Hall at a depth of 17.9km, data collected by the bureau’s Seismological Center showed.
The earthquake was felt nationwide, with the largest intensity reaching level 4, the bureau said.
Photo courtesy of the New Taipei City Fire Department
No casualties were reported as of press time last night.
Residents on the east coast are still recovering from severe infrastructure damage caused by a magnitude 6.8 earthquake on Sept. 18.
Yesterday’s earthquake was caused by the Philippine Sea Plate subsiding into the Eurasian Continental Plate, Seismological Center Director Chen Kuo-chang (陳國昌) said, adding that it was not related to the Sept. 18 quake.
However, the epicenter of yesterday’s earthquake was almost in the same region as that of a magnitude 6.06 earthquake on Jan. 3, Chen said.
Since 1973, only 25 earthquakes exceeding magnitude 5.5 at a depth of less than 30km have been detected in that region, eight of which exceeded magnitude 6, Chen said.
The biggest one that occurred in the region was a magnitude 6.8 earthquake on March 31, 2002, he said.
Construction on the Taipei 101 building was suspended as a crane on the building’s roof fell after the quake, killing five workers and damaging multiple vehicles, Chen said.
While certain locations, such as Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義), are far from the epicenter, residents tend to experience intense shaking due to seismic site effects, in which seismic waves are amplified in superficial geological layers, he said.
Although yesterday’s earthquake nearly reached magnitude 6, it is not likely to trigger many aftershocks, Chen said.
“The earthquake occurred in a geologically fragmented zone, so aftershocks should occur quickly afterward. Our estimate is that no aftershock will occur if nothing happened the day after the earthquake. If there is an aftershock, it could reach magnitude 4.5 or greater,” he said.
Chen said that aftershocks triggered by the earthquake on Sept. 18 have shown signs of gradually subsiding, although the bureau still recorded four aftershocks on Monday, which was “unusual.”
Seismic activity around Taiwan proper has been more active and frequent this year, Chen said.
Taiwan has an average of two or three earthquakes exceeding magnitude 6 per year, but eight earthquakes larger than magnitude 6 have been recorded so far this year, he said.
“As of yesterday, 55 earthquakes of magnitude 5 to 6 had occurred this year. The average, however, is 24 to 25 per year,” Chang said, adding that more seismic activity is expected during the remainder of this year.
SEND A MESSAGE: Sinking the amphibious assault ship, the lead warship of its class, is meant to show China the US Navy is capable of sinking their ships, an analyst said The US and allied navies plan to sink a 40,000-tonne ship at the latest Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise to simulate defeating a Chinese amphibious assault on Taiwan. This year’s RIMPAC — the 29th iteration of the world’s largest naval exercise — involves the US, 28 partners, more than 25,000 personnel, 40 warships, three submarines and more than 150 aircraft operating in and around Hawaii from yesterday to Aug. 1, the US Navy said in a press release. The major components of the event include multidomain warfare exercises in multiship surface engagements, anti-submarine warfare and multi-axis defense of a carrier strike
Passengers aboard Korean Airlines Flight KE189 arrived in Taichung safely yesterday after a scare the previous day encountering uncontrolled decompression, which injured 13 passengers. Flight KE189 departed from Incheon at 4:45pm on Saturday bound for Taichung with 125 passengers on board. The flight was above Jeju Island when a fault in the pressurization system occurred 50 minutes after takeoff. Online flight tracker Flightradar24’s data show that the plane dropped more than 8,000 meters within 15 minutes, before it returned and landed back at Incheon Airport at 19:38pm. Thirteen passengers on board had a headache or earache due to the incident and were hospitalized. A different
China might seek to isolate Taiwan and weaken its economy through a “quarantine,” which would make it difficult for the US to respond and force Taipei to negotiate on unification, CNN reported on Saturday. Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) “increasingly bellicose actions” toward Taiwan have heightened concerns that Beijing would use its military against Taiwan, it said, citing a report by think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). However, China might choose to initiate a quarantine, rather than a military invasion of Taiwan, to avoid US involvement, it said. “A quarantine [is] a law enforcement-led operation to control
A new message broadcast on the Taipei MRT’s Wenhu (Brown) Line urging passengers to yield their seats to those in need, not necessarily elderly people, would be extended to other MRT lines and public transportation in the capital, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday. Chiang was responding to reporters’ questions on the sidelines of a news conference at Taipei City Hall promoting healthy walking. Several disputes over priority seats on public transportation have recently been reported, sparking debate about who qualifies to sit in them, as most of the cases involved elderly people asking young people to give up their