A strong earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale shook the nation yesterday morning, resulting in a temporary halt of the mass rapid transit system in Taipei, but there were no reports of damages or casualties.
Seismologists at the Central Weather Bureau said residents living in the north and northeast should be prepared for aftershocks that could exceed 5 on the Richter scale.
"The earthquake was caused by a collision between the Philippine and Eurasian tectonic plates," said Kuo Kai-wen (
Yesterday's earthquake struck at 9:52am, making it the strongest earthquake this year. It lasted for about 22 seconds, rattling windows and shaking shelves in buildings in northern and eastern Taiwan, officials said.
The temblor was centered 21.3km below the sea floor and about 25km east of the bureau's Nanao seismic monitoring station in eastern Ilan County.
The quake was felt across the country yesterday. The greatest intensity of the quake was measured at 4 in Ilan, Hualien and Taichung counties on Taiwan's unique scale of tremor-intensity measurement -- which classifies tremor-intensity into seven categories.
In Taipei, the intensity measured 3, leading to a temporary halt of the city's rapid transit system. The operation resumed service at 10:10am.
The quake was followed by several moderate aftershocks and more than 200 insensible ones. At 1:08pm, a tremor registering 5.3 on the Richter scale shook the nation.
On March 31 last year, an earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale, struck at 2:52pm with its epicenter near Nanao.
In Taipei, roughly 100km away from the epicenter, the intensity registered at 5.
"Although the epicenter of the earthquake is near last year's March epicenter, we don't see any correlation between the two events," Kuo said.
Since the devastating 921 earthquake, which registered 7.3 on the Richter scale and claimed more than 2,400 lives in 1999, seismologists have reminded the public that minor earthquakes are a relatively common occurrence.
Yeh Yih-hsiung (葉義雄), a seismologist at Academia Sinica, said that like Japan, Taiwan is also one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries. They both sit on the circum-Pacific seismic belt, where about 68 percent of the world's earthquakes occur.
Yeh said yesterday's earthquake had no correlation with the big quake that hit north eastern Japan last month.
A powerful earthquake rocked northeastern Japan on May 26, causing fires and landslides, knocking out power, and disrupting road and rail traffic. The quake registered at magnitude of 7 and was the strongest to hit Japan in more than two years.
"Earthquakes in Japan can be attributed to the motion of the Eurasian tectonic plate. The mechanism is different from that of earthquakes in Taiwan," Yeh said.
In addition to the aftershocks, bureau officials said residents should also be alert for heavy rain.
Yesterday, officials issued warnings of heavy rain in southern Taiwan, saying that the affected area would be expanded today.
RSS