Surprised scientists say that typhoons that hit Taiwan unleash long, slow earthquakes, a phenomenon that may save it from more devastating temblors.
Seismologists installed movement sensors in boreholes at depths of 200m to 270m in eastern Taiwan, monitoring a spot where two plates, the Philippine Sea Plate and the Eurasian plate, bump and jostle in an oblique, dipping fault.
Over five years, researchers saw a remarkable correlation between tropical storms and “slow” earthquakes, a seismic beast first identified three decades ago.
Slow quakes entail a slippage in the fault that unfolds progressively over hours or days, rather than a sudden, violent release of the kind that destroys buildings and lives.
The sensors noted 20 such slow earthquakes, 11 of which coincided with typhoons, during the study period.
The 11 quakes were all stronger and characterized by more complex seismic waveforms than other “slow” events.
“These data are unequivocal in identifying typhoons as triggers of these slow quakes. The probability that they coincide by chance is small,” said coauthor Alan Linde of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington.
A typhoon causes a fall in atmospheric pressure — and the researchers suggest that this in turn reduces pressure on the land over the fault.
As a result, one side of the fault lifts slightly, causing the pressure that has been building up inside to be released.
“This fault [in Taiwan] experiences more or less constant strain and stress buildup,” Linde said in a press release.
“If it's close to failure, the small perturbation due to the low pressure of the typhoon can push it over the failure limit. If there is no typhoon, stress will continue to accumulate until it fails without the need for a trigger,” he said.
The typhoon does not work as a seismic trigger on faults that lie on the seabed because water moves into the area, dampening out any difference in pressure, the authors theorize.
Often considered a curse, typhoons — for Taiwan — could in fact could be a blessing.
A storm could act as a pressure valve, preventing strain from building up to the point where the fault ruptures devastatingly.
The Nankai Trough in southwestern Japan also lies on the convergence of the Philippine Sea and Eurasian plates.
The plates are converging at a rate of about 4cm per year, which is about half that of the activity in Taiwan.
In theory, Taiwan should be more vulnerable than the Nankai Trough because of the greater slippage, but the record shows that it has had no great earthquakes and relatively few large quakes, Linde said.
By comparision, the Nankai Trough is capable of unleashing a true monster, a magnitude-8 earthquake, every 100 to 150 years.
The paper, published in the British journal Nature, was written by a team led by Liu Chi-ching (劉啟清) of the Institute for Earth Sciences at Academic Sinica.
INCREASED CAPACITY: The flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays would leave Singapore in the morning and Taipei in the afternoon Singapore Airlines is adding four supplementary flights to Taipei per week until May to meet increased tourist and business travel demand, the carrier said on Friday. The addition would raise the number of weekly flights it operates to Taipei to 18, Singapore Airlines Taiwan general manager Timothy Ouyang (歐陽漢源) said. The airline has recorded a steady rise in tourist and business travel to and from Taipei, and aims to provide more flexible travel arrangements for passengers, said Ouyang, who assumed the post in July last year. From now until Saturday next week, four additional flights would depart from Singapore on Monday, Wednesday, Friday
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday reported the return of large-scale Chinese air force activities after their unexplained absence for more than two weeks, which had prompted speculation regarding Beijing’s motives. China usually sends fighter jets, drones and other military aircraft around the nation on a daily basis. Interruptions to such routine are generally caused by bad weather. The Ministry of National Defense said it had detected 26 Chinese military aircraft in the Taiwan Strait over the previous 24 hours. It last reported that many aircraft on Feb. 25, when it spotted 30 aircraft, saying Beijing was carrying out another “joint combat
Taiwan successfully defended its women’s 540 kilogram title and won its first-ever men’s 640 kg title at the 2026 World Indoor Tug of War Championships in Taipei yesterday. In the women’s event, Taiwan’s eight-person squad reached the final following a round-robin preliminary round and semifinals featuring teams from Ukraine, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, the Basque Country and South Korea. In the finals, they swept the Basque team 2-0, giving the team composed mainly of National Taiwan Normal University students and graduates its second championship in a row, and its fourth in five years. Team captain
Taiwan’s three major international carriers are increasing booking fees, with EVA Airways having already increased the charge to US$28 per flight segment from US$25, while China Airlines (CAL) and Starlux Airlines are set to follow suit. Booking fees are charged by airlines through a global distribution system (GDS) and passed on to passengers. Carriers that apply the fees include CAL, EVA, Starlux and Tigerair Taiwan. A GDS is a computerized network operated by a company that connects airlines with travel agents and ticketing platforms, allowing reservations to be made and processed in real time. Major players include Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport. EVA Air began
RSS