The Central Weather Administration reported that the largest earthquake, which struck Taiwan’s capital overnight into the early hours of Tuesday, was a magnitude-6.3 tremor that originated in eastern Hualien.
The Central Weather Administration reports that at approximately 5:08 p.m. (0908 GMT) on Monday, a magnitude 5.5 powerful earthquake occurred. Taipei, the nation’s capital, felt it.
A sequence of aftershocks and earthquakes ensued, with two powerful quakes occurring consecutively at approximately 2:30 am (1830 GMT) on Tuesday, as reported by AFP reporters and witnesses in Taipei.
“I was washing my hands, and suddenly felt what I thought was vertigo,” Olivier Bonifacio, a tourist staying in Taipei’s Da’an district, told AFP.
“I stepped into my room and noticed the building was rocking and I heard the desk creak,” he said, adding that it was then he realised it was another aftershock.
According to the Central Weather Administration, there was a magnitude-6.0 earthquake at 2:26 in the morning, and a magnitude-6.3 one six minutes later.
The first one was estimated by the US Geological Survey to be magnitude 6.1, and the second at magnitude 6.0.
The Central Weather Administration reported many more minor earthquakes in the Hualien region during the course of the evening, with a new one occurring every few minutes, according to its website.
Through Monday, AFP reporters could feel their buildings swaying during intense quakes, while one said “glass panels of bathroom and windows were making noises” as the island shuddered.
The Hualien region was the epicentre of a magnitude-7.4 quake that hit on April 3, causing landslides that blocked off roads around the mountainous region, while buildings in the main Hualien city were badly damaged.
At least 17 were killed in that quake, with the latest body found in a quarry on April 13.
Early Tuesday, Hualien’s fire department said that teams were dispatched to inspect any disaster from the new quakes.
They declared in a statement at 2:54 am that no casualties had been reported as of yet.
Because Taiwan is situated at the meeting point of two tectonic plates, it experiences regular earthquakes.
Numerous aftershocks from the earthquake on April 3 produced hundreds of rockfalls in the Hualien area.
It was the worst to strike Taiwan since a 7.6-magnitude earthquake struck the nation in 1999. At that time, 2,400 people perished in the deadliest natural disaster in the history of the island.
More public disaster awareness and stricter building controls, particularly stronger seismic standards in building codes, seem to have prevented a more major calamity during the April 3 earthquake.
