A magnitude 5.6 earthquake rocked the nation around lunch time yesterday, sparking more than a dozen aftershocks along the east coast.
The Central Weather Bureau said that the earthquake occurred at 11:36am and its epicenter was in Hsiulin Township (秀林), Hualien County.
The earthquake occurred at a depth of about 15km.
No injuries or damage to infrastructure were reported.
Bureau data show that the strongest tremors — magnitude 5 — were felt in Yilan County’s Nanshan Village (南山) and Deji (德基) near the Deji Reservoir in Greater Taichung.
Magnitude 4 tremors were recorded at Taroko Gorge in Hualien, a popular tourist spot, as well as in Hualien City and Jhudong Township (竹東) in Hsinchu County, the bureau said.
The quake’s strength in Taipei was magnitude 2, while other places around the nation registered tremors ranging in magnitude from 1 to 3.
Kuo Kai-wen (郭鎧紋), director of the bureau’s seismology center, said the earthquake shook Taipei for 11.4 seconds.
The duration and intensity of the quake experienced by a person varies depending on their location, Kuo said.
Some tall buildings shake longer because of their design and the materials they are built with, he said.
Statistics show that the nation experiences an average of two to three magnitude 6 earthquakes a year and about 30 quakes of magnitudes ranging from 5 to 5.9.
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