A magnitude 6.1 earthquake yesterday struck off Taiwan’s east coast at 1:36am, the Central Weather Bureau said, adding that aftershocks of magnitude 4 or higher could occur in the next three days.
No casualties were reported as of press time last night.
Data from the bureau’s Seismology Center showed that the epicenter was 85.1km east of Yilan County Hall at a depth of 112km.
Photo: Hsiao Yu-hsin, Taipei Times
The largest intensity generated by the earthquake was level 4, which was felt in Yilan and Miaoli counties. Level 3 intensity was recorded in New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Hsinchu City and Hsinchu and Hualien counties.
Taipei and Taichung, as well as Changhua, Chiayi, Nantou, Taitung and Yunlin counties reported level 2 intensity. Kaohsiung, Keelung, Tainan and Chiayi City recorded level 1 intensity, the data showed.
Seismology Center specialist Wu Chien-wen (吳建文) said the earthquake was the largest so far this year, adding that it was caused by the Philippine Sea Plate and the Eurasian Plate pressing against each other.
Five magnitude 5 or larger earthquakes occurred within a 50km radius of the epicenter last year, Wu said.
“Aftershocks of magnitude 4 or larger could occur in the next three days. As the epicenter was more than 100km underground, there would not be too many aftershocks,” Wu added.
Annually, Taiwan experiences about 18 earthquakes of magnitude 5 to 6 and an average of 2.3 earthquakes exceeding magnitude 6, Seismology Center Director Chen Kuo-chang (陳國昌) said.
However, the center has already recorded five magnitude 5 or larger earthquakes since last month, including yesterday’s, he said.
Last year, there were 25 magnitude 5 to 6 earthquakes, whereas there were only four earthquakes larger than magnitude 6, Chen said.
“Last year, we started seeing magnitude 5 or larger earthquakes more frequently than the long-term average, and the number of medium to small earthquakes was significantly below average,” Chen said. “This is a special phenomenon and requires further observation.”
Many people said that they were awoken not by the earthquake, but rather by numerous alerts sent to their smartphones through the public warning system.
In addition to triggering a loud alarm, which cannot be manually turned off, the system also repeatedly sent the same earthquake warning message, with some people reporting receiving it more than a dozen times.
Bureau Director-General Cheng Ming-dean (鄭明典) wrote on Facebook that the multiple messages were due to an error.
He wrote that after the earthquake early warning system determined that yesterday’s earthquake met its criteria for issuing an alert — a magnitude 5 or larger earthquake generating level 3 intensity in Taipei or level 4 intensity elsewhere — an advance message was sent to localities that could be affected.
As more data gradually arrive from observation stations after the first detection of an earthquake, the early warning system is designed to process the data and deliver an additional alert if there was any change in the earthquake’s magnitude or the location of the epicenter, he added.
“The earthquake’s epicenter was far from Taiwan’s northeast coast and was more than 110km deep, which presented a challenge to the early warning system,” he said. “Meanwhile, the calculation errors caused the system to constantly update the information, which caused it to send out multiple warning messages,” he said.
To prevent the system from repeating the same warning message, the bureau has begun to improve the automatic detection modules in the earthquake early warning system, Cheng said.
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Monday called for greater cooperation between Taiwan, Lithuania and the EU to counter threats to information security, including attacks on undersea cables and other critical infrastructure. In a speech at Vilnius University in the Lithuanian capital, Tsai highlighted recent incidents in which vital undersea cables — essential for cross-border data transmission — were severed in the Taiwan Strait and the Baltic Sea over the past year. Taiwanese authorities suspect Chinese sabotage in the incidents near Taiwan’s waters, while EU leaders have said Russia is the likely culprit behind similar breaches in the Baltic. “Taiwan and our European
The Taipei District Court sentenced babysitters Liu Tsai-hsuan (劉彩萱) and Liu Jou-lin (劉若琳) to life and 18 years in prison respectively today for causing the death of a one-year-old boy in December 2023. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said that Liu Tsai-hsuan was entrusted with the care of a one-year-old boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), in August 2023 by the Child Welfare League Foundation. From Sept. 1 to Dec. 23 that year, she and her sister Liu Jou-lin allegedly committed acts of abuse against the boy, who was rushed to the hospital with severe injuries on Dec. 24, 2023, but did not
LIKE-MINDED COUNTRIES: Despite the threats from outside, Taiwan and Lithuania thrived and developed their economies, former president Tsai Ing-wen said Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Saturday thanked Lithuania for its support of Taiwan, saying that both countries are united as partners in defending democracy. Speaking at a reception organized by the Lithuania-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Group welcoming her on her first visit to the Baltic state, Tsai said that while she was president from 2016 to last year, many Lithuanian “friends” visited Taiwan. “And I told myself I have to be here. I am very happy that I am here, a wonderful country and wonderful people,” Tsai said. Taiwan and Lithuania are in similar situations as both are neighbors to authoritarian countries, she
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) is to visit the UK during her ongoing European trip, which originally included only Lithuania and Denmark, her office said today. Tsai departed Taiwan for Europe on Friday night, with planned stops in Lithuania and Denmark, marking her second visit to the continent since her two-term presidency ended in May last year. Her office issued a statement today saying that Tsai would also visit the UK "for a few days," during which she is to meet with UK politicians and Taiwanese professionals, and visit academic and research institutions. Following Tsai's stop in Denmark, she is to visit the
RSS