Taiwan hit by dozens of strong aftershocks from deadly quake
This picture released by Taiwan’s Central News Agency on Apr 22, 2024, shows fallen rocks on Suhua highway after an earthquake in Hualien. (Photo: AFP/Taiwan’s Central News Agency)
TAIPEI: Taiwan's eastern county of Hualien was shaken by dozens of earthquakes overnight and into Tuesday (Apr 23) that left buildings swaying and some tilting, with the government saying they were aftershocks from a huge deadly quake that hit the island more than two weeks ago.
The strongest, which the US Geological Survey measured at magnitude 6.1, hit around 2.30am local time, followed minutes later by a 6.0 tremor.
Authorities said there were no casualties reported so far, but the non-stop shaking meant a restless night even for those in the capital Taipei about 150km north, where walls and glass panels rattled in swaying homes.
"I was too scared to move and stayed in bed," said office worker Kevin Lin, 53, in Taipei, who told AFP he was jolted awake by the intense quakes.
Around 8am, a 5.8-magnitude tremor shook the capital as commuters made their way to work.
The tremors started Monday around 5pm and by about 10.30am the next day, the Central Weather Administration said it had recorded more than 200 quakes.
All had originated from Hualien.
The mountainous county was the epicentre of a magnitude-7.4 quake that hit Apr 3, which Taiwan said was the "strongest in 25 years", triggering landslides that blocked roads and severely damaged buildings around the main Hualien city.
At least 17 people were killed, with the latest body found in a quarry on Apr 13.
Singaporean couple Sim Hwee Kok and Neo Siew Choo are the only people still unaccounted for. They are believed to have gone missing along the Shakadang Trail.
A hotel building in Hualien that was previously damaged started tilting at an angle on Tuesday after the quakes, according to footage obtained by AFP.
"Please come out for your safety. Let's evacuate first OK? Anyone still inside? Please come down," shouted a firefighter to the residents of nearby buildings.
Hsu-ho Lin told local news channel Formosa TV that he had immediately run over to the hotel building because his grandma lives there and she "kept refusing to leave".
"My grandmother insisted on staying and my grandfather could not persuade her," Lin said, adding that they were now evacuating from the building.
The first floor of a nearby residential building was flattened by Tuesday's quakes, its tilting frame precariously propped up by metal beams.
Tenants had already evacuated from there after the Apr 3 quake, and the building was awaiting demolition.
Taiwan is still feeling aftershocks after last week's deadly earthquake, with one rocking Taipei today, causing buildings to shake. Rescue efforts are continuing in disaster-hit Hualien county, six days since the quake struck. Six people remain missing, among them a mother and her two young children, as well as a Singaporean couple. Three family members of the missing couple have arrived in Hualien. Heavy machinery have been deployed to clear roads in order to expedite the search. Victoria Jen reports.
"SWARM OF SEISMICITY"
Taiwan sees frequent earthquakes due to its location at the junction of two tectonic plates, and the Apr 3 quake was followed by more than 1,100 aftershocks - causing rockfalls and tremors around Hualien.
A Taipei government seismologist said the latest "swarm" of tremors originated to the south of the main April quake, unlike the earlier ones which had been mainly to the north.
Earthquake scientist Judith Hubbard said the aftershocks coming after the Apr 3 earthquake - which decayed over two weeks - was a way for the ground to "slowly adjust back to normal" after a tectonic shift.
But Monday and Tuesday's quakes showed "a new pattern of seismic activity emerging, this swarm of seismicity".
"It's not decaying back down in the way we expect so it means something else is happening down there," Hubbard told AFP.
"It suggests there might be fluids - like hot water - on the faults that might be moving ... If it becomes very pressurised, it can push the fault apart and make it easier for the fault to slip."
It remains unclear if this could trigger a large earthquake again, but "this swarm is a certainly good opportunity for people in the region to revisit their recently tested earthquake preparations", Hubbard wrote in her "Earthquake Insights" newsletter.
The Apr 3 tremor was the most serious in Taiwan since 1999 when a magnitude-7.6 quake hit the island. The death toll then was far higher, with 2,400 people killed in the deadliest natural disaster in the island's history.
Stricter building regulations - including enhanced seismic requirements in its building codes - and widespread public disaster awareness had staved off a more serious catastrophe in the Apr 3 quake.
The world's largest contract chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC), whose factories are on the island's western coast, said some staff at a small number of factories were evacuated, but facility and safety systems were functioning normally and all personnel were safe.
"Currently, we do not expect any impact on operations," it said in an email.
Investors brushed off concerns about the quake, with TSMC's Taipei-listed shares up 1.75 per cent on Tuesday morning.
