A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off Taiwan’s northeast coast at 5:50am yesterday, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said.
Aftershocks of magnitude 4 to 5 might occur over the next two weeks, it added.
The earthquake’s epicenter was 70.1km east of the Yilan County Hall and occurred at a focal depth of 16.7km, the bureau said.
Photo courtesy of the Central Weather Bureau
Three aftershocks of magnitudes 4.5, 4.3 and 5.2 followed the main tremor within six minutes, it said.
The largest intensity generated by the main earthquake was level 4 in Yilan, while level 3 was registered in Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Taichung and Keelung, as well as in Hsinchu, Miaoli, Nantou, Yunlin and Hualien counties, bureau data showed.
Yesterday’s tremor was the third earthquake this year exceeding magnitude 6, CWB Seismology Center deputy director Wu Chien-fu (吳建富) told a news conference, adding that the other two occurred on Feb. 7 and April 18, both with a magnitude of 6.2.
Yesterday’s quake was caused by the expansion of the Ryukyu Island arc, which is an effect of the Philippine Sea Plate subducting under the Eurasian Plate, he said.
The epicenter was in the Okinawa Trough, which is part of the nation’s northeast earthquake belt, Wu said, adding that 70 percent of all earthquakes that affect Taiwan occur in that region.
On average, two to three earthquakes of magnitude 6 or larger occur in Taiwan annually, Wu said.
As aftershocks of magnitude 4 to 5 might occur over the next two weeks, residents in mountainous areas should beware of mudflows and landslides that could be triggered, especially after periods of intense rain.
Asked whether earthquakes strike more often than usual this year, Wu said that the occurrence of earthquakes over the past few years has been in the normal range, with the exception of Hualien, where tremors have struck increasingly often since a magnitude 6.2 earthquake in 2018.
However, an earthquake swarm that caused tremors in Hualien from April to last month might give people the impression that there are more earthquakes this year, he said.
“The epicenters of the Hualien quakes were in the nation’s eastern earthquake belt. The subduction of the Philippine Sea Plate under the Eurasian Plate has sparked the series of very shallow earthquakes in Shoufong Township [壽豐],” Wu said, adding that Shoufong is in a geolocically fragmented area.
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