A magnitude 5.2 earthquake shook southern Taiwan at 9:56am yesterday, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said.
No injuries or damage were immediately reported.
The earthquake was centered about 36.9km northwest of Taitung County Government office in Taitung City and struck at a depth of 10km, the Seismology Center said.
The intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in parts of Kaohsiung and Taitung County, where it measured 4 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale.
The quake also measured an intensity of 3 in parts of Pingtung, Chiayi and Hualien counties, the bureau said.
Several areas in Tainan, Chiayi City and Taichung, as well as Yunlin, Nantou and Changhua counties recorded an intensity of 2.
The quake was an aftershock of a magnitude 5.6 quake that struck on Wednesday, the bureau said, adding that there were also three other magnitude 3.8 aftershocks.
The epicenters of the two quakes were in the Central Mountain Range, it said.
Relatively few earthquakes occur in the Central Mountain Range, with only 26 measuring magnitude 5 or higher since the bureau began keeping records in 1973.
The earthquakes were caused by a fault that formed when the Eurasian Plate collided with the Philippine Sea Plate, the bureau said.
The aftershocks occurred at the intersection of Kaohsiung, and Pingtung and Taitung counties, Seismology Center Deputy Director Hsiao Nai-chi (蕭乃祺) said.
The most recent aftershock occurred at 10:27am yesterday in Taitung County’s Haiduan Township (海端鄉) at a depth of 5km, with its epicenter about 38.1km northwest of the county’s government Taitung City office.
An intensity of 3 was measured in parts of Kaohsiung.
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