Two earthquakes of stronger than magnitude 5 struck off the east coast early yesterday, the Central Weather Bureau said, adding that they were aftershocks from a magnitude 6.1 earthquake that struck early on Sunday.
Sunday’s earthquake was the largest so far this year.
The bureau had warned the public to be vigilant from Monday to today for aftershocks of magnitude 4 or greater.
The earthquakes could be precursors to larger earthquakes, because Taiwan has had eight earthquakes of magnitude 5 or greater over the past month, the bureau said.
Data from the bureau’s Seismology Center showed that a magnitude 5.5 temblor occurred at 12:56am yesterday.
The epicenter was 73km east-southeast of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 69.3km, and Yilan County recorded the nation’s highest intensity, Level 3.
At 12:58am, a magnitude 5.7 earthquake was detected 47.9km southeast of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 23.9km.
The observation station in Yilan again recorded the nation’s highest intensity, Level 4.
The quake was the nation’s second-largest to affect Taiwan this year.
Despite having different epicenters, yesterday’s and Sunday’s earthquakes occurred in a subduction zone formed by the Eurasian Plate and the Philippine Sea plate, Seismological Center Director Chen Kuo-chang (陳國昌) said.
Because of this, the bureau categorized yesterday’s two earthquakes as aftershocks of the magnitude 6.1 earthquake, he added.
Most of the earthquakes of magnitude 5 or greater this year have occurred in the subduction zone, particularly around the Heping Sea Basin, Chen said, adding that seismic activity became more frequent around the sea basin last year.
In a year, Taiwan typically records about 18 earthquakes magnitude 5 to magnitude 6, and about two earthquakes greater than magnitude 6.
So far this year, Taiwan has already had eight earthquakes of magnitude 5 or greater, he said, adding that the bureau offers two possible explanations.
“The frequent release of seismic energy helps relieve the stress accumulated in the mantle, which prevents larger earthquakes,” he said.
Also, large earthquakes are more likely to occur in subduction zones or around sea trenches, he said, adding that many earthquakes of magnitude 8.5 or greater have had one or more foreshocks.
It is possible that these earthquakes of magnitude 5 or greater are foreshocks, he said.
A week before Japan’s northeast region was devastated by a magnitude 9 earthquake and a subsequent tsunami in 2011, a magnitude 7.7 earthquake occurred in the region, which seismologists at one point considered the main shock, Chen said.
As scientists are still unable to predict the occurrence of earthquakes, it is necessary to continue monitoring earthquakes off the east coast, he said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching