Hualien earthquake delays 8000 train passengers

Shallow earthquake: Yesterday’s earthquake was the sixth this year with a magnitude of 6, with aftershocks measuring 5 or more in the next two days, an official said.

By Shelley Chan / Staff Reporter

Nearly 8,000 train passengers were delayed after a 6.0-magnitude earthquake rocked Hualien County at 9:05 am yesterday.

Taiwan’s Railway Administration said the quake delayed 6,196 passengers on 31 trains, and about 1,700 passengers on the Taoyuan International Airport subway line.

No injuries were reported as of press time last night, but TV footage showed business owners in Guangfu Town, Hualien Province (光復) cleaning up damaged goods and broken glass.

Photo courtesy of Taoyuan Metro Corp

Monitoring camera footage at Liu Lake (鯉魚), an east coast tourist destination, showed that the earthquake caused the lake to shake vertically.

Central Meteorological Bureau data showed that the quake’s epicenter was 37.7 kilometers southwest of Hualien Hull County and at a depth of 6.8 kilometers in Guangfu Town.

Earthquakes with a focal depth of 30 km are known as “very shallow”.

The greatest intensity from the quake, which was felt across the country, was 5 on the Taiwan seven-layer scale in Guangfu town, the bureau said, adding that the intensity was 4 in Nantou, Taitung and Hualien counties.

As of 3:07 p.m., the bureau’s seismic center had recorded 11 aftershocks: one with a magnitude of 5, five, and five of a magnitude of 3.

Yesterday’s earthquake was the sixth this year, with a magnitude of 6, said the director of the Seismological Center Chen Kuchang (陳國昌).

“We estimate that aftershocks with a magnitude of 5 or more could occur in the next two days. In the next seven days, people should also watch out for aftershocks with a magnitude of 4 to 5 on the Richter scale,” said Chen.

He added that aftershocks of less than 4 degrees could occur within the next 30 days.

Chen said the bureau has not yet determined the cause of the quake, which occurred on the western side of the eastern rift valley stretching from Hualien County to Taitung County.

The rift valley itself is a major rift, but it also contains the intersection of tectonic plates and many smaller faults. The epicenter at the top of the fault was in Guangfu. Since it was a very shallow earthquake, we can’t be sure that it was related to fault movement. “There is an investigation from the Central Geological Survey pending,” he said.

Chen said the epicenter was not in an area prone to earthquakes greater than 6 degrees.

Citing office records since 1990, he said, there was a 6.09-magnitude earthquake in 2009.

Over the past 32 years, the bureau has recorded 14 earthquakes of magnitude 5 or more in the region, four of which were deep earthquakes, Chen said, adding that yesterday’s quake was the least shallow.

Every year, Taiwan experiences an average of two to three earthquakes of magnitude 6 or more, Chen said, adding that the number of earthquakes of magnitude 6 this year is already twice the annual average.

Three of the six earthquakes this year of magnitude 6 or greater occurred on March 23, Qin said.

He said yesterday’s earthquake had nothing to do with the March 23 earthquake.

The largest number of earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater was recorded in 1999, when a 7.3-magnitude earthquake devastated on September 21.

Qin said the quake caused 13 aftershocks with a magnitude of 6.

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