The Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said a magnitude 5.6 earthquake that happened early yesterday morning was caused by the Philippine Sea Plate and Eurasian Plate moving against each other.
Data recorded by the bureau showed that the hypocenter of the quake, which occurred at 3:37am, was about 37km northeast of Hualien County at a depth of 15.3km.
The earthquake generated a local intensity of 5 in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳) and Hualien County’s Heping Township (和平).
Photo: Wu Chun-feng, Taipei Times
A local intensity of 3 was recorded in Taipei and New Taipei City.
The bureau’s statistics showed that a total of 19 earthquakes were recorded between 12:31am and 2:30pm. Seven of them were felt nationwide and 12 of them were local earthquakes.
Apart from the magnitude 5.6 earthquake, the remaining 18 earthquakes were between magnitude 3.6 and magnitude 4.7. The epicenters of the earthquakes recorded at 12:31am and 12:34am respectively were in Taitung County, and the remaining earthquakes had epicenters in Hualien County.
As of press time, another aftershock -- magnitude 5.5 -- occurred at 9:09 pm.
CWB seismology center director Kuo Kai-wen (郭鎧紋) said earthquakes are frequently recorded on the nation’s east coast.
He said that serial earthquakes are recorded once or twice per month, adding they happen because the Philippine Sea Plate and Eurasian Plate move against each other.
He said that one should be concerned if no such serial earthquake is recorded, as movement releases seismic energy.
Kuo said yesterday’s magnitude 5.6 earthquake was the main earthquake of a serial earthquake.
He said the foreshock of the main earthquake was the magnitude 4.7 quake recorded at 1:56am, adding that aftershocks continued until 2:30pm.
Kuo dismissed speculation that the earthquakes were triggered by a volcanic eruption at Mount Aso in Japan, saying that the two events were unrelated.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
The eastern extension of the Taipei MRT Red Line could begin operations as early as late June, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said it is considering offering one month of free rides on the new section to mark its opening. Construction progress on the 1.4km extension, which is to run from the current terminal Xiangshan Station to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, was 90.6 percent complete by the end of last month, the department said in a report to the Taipei City Council's Transportation Committee. While construction began in October 2016 with an
NON-RED SUPPLY: Boosting the nation’s drone industry is becoming increasingly urgent as China’s UAV dominance could become an issue in a crisis, an analyst said Taiwan’s drone exports to Europe grew 41.7-fold from 2024 to last year, with demand from Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression the most likely driver of growth, a study showed. The Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET) in a statement on Wednesday said it found that many of Taiwan’s uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) sales were from Poland and the Czech Republic. These countries likely transferred the drones to Ukraine to aid it in its fight against the Russian invasion that started in 2022, it said. Despite the gains, Taiwan is not the dominant drone exporter to these markets, ranking second and fourth
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
RSS