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Strong earthquake shakes Taitung

Huge stones sit on a highway in Taitung after a 6.6-magnitude earthquake struck eastern Taiwan at 12:38pm yesterday. PHOTO: CNA

Seismologists warned yesterday that aftershocks measuring greater than 5 on the Richter scale were likely for at least a month following a 6.6-magnitude earthquake that jolted the nation yesterday.

The quake occurred at 12:38pm and caused landslides and damage to roads and bridges in Taitung County. Its epicenter was located in the county's northern Chengkung Township.

No casualties had been reported as of press time, but one man was trapped in an elevator in Fengshan, near Kaohsiung City, seismologists from the Central Weather Bureau said.

Another person was injured in the Alishan area in a traffic accident attributed to the quake, local television reported.

The quake was a result of pressure released from the Philippine Sea and Euroasia plates, said Kuo Kai-wen (郭鎧紋), director of the bureau's seismology center.

Kuo said quakes of a magnitude greater than 5 on the Richter scale could be expected in the Taitung area for the next month.

It was the nation's strongest quake this year.

The 508m-high Taipei 101, the world's tallest building, swayed in the quake but no damage was reported.

Two aftershocks measuring 5.1 and one measuring 5.0 on the Richter scale, as well as some 120 other minor or imperceptible aftershocks, followed in the two hours after yesterday's quake, Kuo said.

Taiwan lies on on the Circum-Pacific Belt, which encompasses fault lines stretching from the coast of Chile to California and up through Taiwan and Japan. The belt is, along with the large European Alpida Belt, responsible for 95 out of every 100 earthquakes in the world, Kuo said.
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