Six earthquakes that occurred between Wednesday afternoon and yesterday afternoon in the Chiayi area should not be interpreted as signs that bigger earthquakes are on hand, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said yesterday.
Data collected by the CWB show the epicenters of the six earthquakes, which were recorded between 5:49pm on Wednesday and 1:48pm yesterday, to fall within the boundaries of Chiayi County’s Jhungpu Township (中埔), which is about 10km southeast of the Chiayi City Government building.
Five of the earthquakes hit the county in rapid succession between 5:49pm and 9:10pm on Wednesday.
The largest and main earthquake was a magnitude 5 event at 9:10pm. The aftershock of that earthquake did not arrive until 1:48pm yesterday.
Meanwhile, the magnitudes of the four foreshocks leading up to the largest earthquake were between 3.6 and 4.1. All six hypocenters were less than 20km underground.
No casualties were reported in connection to the earthquakes.
CWB Seismology Center Director Kuo Kai-wen (郭鎧紋) said consecutive earthquakes happen frequently in Taiwan, adding that smaller earthquakes usually lead up to the main earthquake.
Apart from the magnitude 4.6 aftershock, Kuo said that the magnitude 5 earthquakes also generated about 200 magnitude 1 and magnitude 2 tremors.
These earthquakes happened in plains covered by a thick layer of alluvial deposits, Kuo said, adding that geologists have yet to identify any active fault in this area.
Although the area is surrounded by the Chuko (觸口) fault to the east, Jiuqiungkeng (九芎坑) fault to the north and Muchiliao (木屐寮) fault to the south, Kuo said the earthquakes of the past two days did not originate at any of those.
Historic data show that a magnitude 7.1 earthquake occurred in Jhungpu in 1941, Kuo said, adding that the seismological cycle for a magnitude 7 earthquake to reoccur is about 300 years.
Taiwan on average has two to three magnitude 5 earthquakes per month, whereas magnitude 6 earthquakes happen three to four times per year, Kuo added.
“There may or may not be magnitude 5 earthquakes before the occurrence of a magnitude 6 earthquake. There is no inevitable causal relation between the two,” he said.
The aftershock at 1:48pm yesterday is reported to have disrupted operation of 20 trains in the area, affecting about 4,440 passengers.
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