One person died and 86 were injured, as of press time, after the nation was hit by a magnitude 6.1 earthquake yesterday morning.
The National Fire Agency said that a 72-year-old woman in Nantou County’s Jiji Township (集集) died after being crushed by a falling wall at Shengyuan Temple (盛元宮). The majority of the injuries were reported in Greater Taichung, with a number also occuring in Nantou County and Changhua County.
The earthquake caused a fire in Nantou County and trapped several people in elevators, the agency said.
Photo: EPA
Several schools and homes were damaged as well.
The nation’s two largest train systems — the Taiwan Railway Administration and the Taiwan High-Speed Rail Corp — were also affected by the earthquake and forced to temporarily stop or cancel some trains’ operations.
The Directorate-General of Highways said that fallen rocks were found at the 64K and 73K milestones of Highway 14 and the 24K milestone of Highway 16.
Photo: Chen Feng-li, Taipei Times
Though the nation experiences frequent earthquakes, people were nevertheless frightened by the temblor.
Television news programs aired images from surveillance tapes, showing many primary-school students in Nantou County and Greater Taichung running out of their classrooms following the earthquake.
Information from the Central Weather Bureau showed that the earthquake occurred at 10:03am and its epicenter was 38.8km east of Nantou County’s Renai Township (仁愛). It was categorized as a “very shallow earthquake,” since its center was 15.4km below the surface.
Photo: EPA
The strongest intensity caused by the earthquake was magnitude 6, which was detected at Sun Moon Lake (日月潭) in Nantou County.
The intensity measured in Nantou City, Wufong (霧峰) in Greater Taichung and Yuanlin (員林) in Changhua County reached magnitude 5.
The intensity levels detected across the rest of the nation varied between magnitudes 2 and 4.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
After the main earthquake, there were five aftershocks of magnitudes from 3.7 to 4.3.
Kuo Kai-wen (郭鎧紋), director of the bureau’s seismological center, said that yesterday’s earthquake was the largest so far this year. It was also the first earthquake this year with a magnitude exceeding 6.
Kuo added that the earthquake had occurred in a blind thrust fault that has yet to be identified in the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Central Geological Survey.
He said that blind thrust faults are found underneath the earth’s surface and can only be detected using special scientific equipment or after earthquakes occur.
“For example, the 921 Earthquake in 1999 exposed the Chelungpu Fault (車籠埔斷層),” Kuo said.
“Since then, two major earthquakes have occurred east of Chelungpu, including a magnitude 6.7 earthquake in 2000 and a magnitude 6.15 one in 2009. Counting the one that happened yesterday, we can conclude that there is a new blind fault,” he added.
Kuo said the power released by yesterday’s earthquake was about 0.7 times the energy released when the atomic bomb was dropped in Hiroshima, which was about 1/64 that of the 921 Earthquake.
MORE VISITORS: The Tourism Administration said that it is seeing positive prospects in its efforts to expand the tourism market in North America and Europe Taiwan has been ranked as the cheapest place in the world to travel to this year, based on a list recommended by NerdWallet. The San Francisco-based personal finance company said that Taiwan topped the list of 16 nations it chose for budget travelers because US tourists do not need visas and travelers can easily have a good meal for less than US$10. A bus ride in Taipei costs just under US$0.50, while subway rides start at US$0.60, the firm said, adding that public transportation in Taiwan is easy to navigate. The firm also called Taiwan a “food lover’s paradise,” citing inexpensive breakfast stalls
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
PLUGGING HOLES: The amendments would bring the legislation in line with systems found in other countries such as Japan and the US, Legislator Chen Kuan-ting said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) has proposed amending national security legislation amid a spate of espionage cases. Potential gaps in security vetting procedures for personnel with access to sensitive information prompted him to propose the amendments, which would introduce changes to Article 14 of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), Chen said yesterday. The proposal, which aims to enhance interagency vetting procedures and reduce the risk of classified information leaks, would establish a comprehensive security clearance system in Taiwan, he said. The amendment would require character and loyalty checks for civil servants and intelligence personnel prior to
RSS