Tainan experienced four earthquakes on Saturday, with the largest one reaching magnitude 5.2. No deaths or injuries were reported.
A magnitude 4 earthquake struck at 5:06am in the city’s Sinshih District (新市).
At 8:07pm, a magnitude 4.2 earthquake was recorded, with its epicenter in the city’s Dongshan District (東山), which was followed by magnitude 5.2 and magnitude 4.7 earthquakes that happened at 11:03pm and 11:05pm in the district, the Central Weather Bureau’s Seismology Center data showed.
The magnitude 5.2 earthquake was the main shock, with the magnitude 4.2 and the magnitude 4.7 earthquakes being the foreshock and aftershock, the center said, adding that the epicenters of the three earthquakes were close.
The hypocenters of the four earthquakes were less than 20km underground, the center said.
The earthquake in Sinshih delayed high-speed rail services, as it forced a train to temporarily stop between Chiayi and Tainan.
Four trains operated by the Taiwan Railways Administration were also delayed, as train drivers are required to reduce speed in the event of an earthquake.
Workers at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s factory in Tainan were at one point asked to evacuate, the Southern Taiwan Science Park (南部科學工業園區) administration said, adding that the company’s facilities did not sustain any damage.
Seismology Center specialist Wu Chien-wen (吳健文) yesterday said that the three earthquakes in Dongshan occurred due to the release of energy accumulated at a geologically fractured zone, which was triggered by the Philippine Sea Plate and Eurasian Plate squeezing against each other.
However, they were not related to the earthquake in Sinshih, Wu said.
Residents of Tainan and Chiayi County should be careful, as aftershocks of magnitude 4 or higher are expected this week, he said.
Aside from Saturday’s magnitude 5.2 earthquake, there were nine other earthquakes exceeding magnitude 5 that happened within a 10km radius of the epicenters of the Dongshan earthquakes over the past 100 years, bureau data showed.
The last time an earthquake exceeding magnitude 5 happened in the area was in November 1995.
The largest earthquake recorded in the area was a magnitude 6.2 earthquake on Dec. 22, 1930.
As the hypocenters of the earthquakes on Saturday night were near the Lijia Fault, Wu said the bureau would investigate if geological activity along the fault might be related to the earthquakes.
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