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進入《TAIPEI TIMES》 Earthquake delays train services
A map with Taiwan’s seven-color earthquake intensity scale shows that an intensity level of 4 was recorded in Yilan County, New Taipei City and Taipei after a magnitude 6.0 earthquake struck off Taiwan’s east coast at 5:46pm yesterday. Photo courtesy of the Central Weather Bureau
By Shelley Shan / Staff reporter
A magnitude 6.0 earthquake struck off the east coast of Taiwan at 5:46pm yesterday, causing delays to some train services and affecting commuters returning home from work.
The quake’s hypocenter was 56.7km east of Hualien County Hall at a depth of 19.4km, data from the Central Weather Bureau’s Seismology Center showed.
The largest intensity generated by the quake reached Level 4, which was reported in Taipei, New Taipei City and Yilan County.
An intensity of Level 3 was reported in Taoyuan, Taichung, Hsinchu City, Changhua County and Nantou City, bureau data showed.
The Taiwan Railways Administration said it slowed down some of its trains following the earthquake, while Taiwan High-Speed Rail Corp said its operations were not affected.
Train arrivals along the Taipei MRT system were delayed by about two to three minutes at each station, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said.
Twenty trains along the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT system were delayed, affecting about 2,500 passengers, Taoyuan Metro Corp said.
Meanwhile, 600 households in Taipei’s Daan District （大安） experienced power outages and nearly 100 households in Taipei experienced a drop in pressure of their water supply, the Taipei City Government’s emergency response center said.
Water and power supplies had returned to normal as of press time last night.
Seismology Center Director Chen Kuo-chang （陳國昌） said the relatively shallow earthquake was triggered by the Philippine Sea Plate and Eurasian Plate colliding.
“We rarely record a magnitude 6.0 earthquake at the beginning of a year,” Chen said, adding that Taiwan has an average of two to three magnitude 6.0 earthquakes per year.
The quake’s epicenter was at the front edge of a subduction zone between the Heping and Nanao sea basins, which is prone to earthquakes, Chen said.
Four earthquakes exceeding magnitude 6.0 have been recorded since 1980 in the same region, with the largest one reaching magnitude 6.8.
The nation has since 2019 recorded more active plate movements due to subduction, he said.
“We are likely to see a continuation of frequent seismic activity this year,” Chen said, adding that aftershocks of magnitude 4 to 5 could happen in the next two to three days.
Although the earthquake generated a Level 4 intensity in Taipei, the national disaster alert system did not send messages to people’s mobile phones.
“The epicenter was very far from the shore, and the area did not have many submarine seismic detectors. As such, we could only gauge the strength of seismic waves when they reached the shore,” Chen said.
“The system first detected the intensity in Yilan and Hualien reaching only Level 3, which means the intensity in Taipei would be less than Level 3. That was why the alarm did not go off,” he said.
The earthquake’s effects in the Taipei basin were mainly generated by seismic site effects, which are related to the amplification of seismic waves in superficial geological layers, he added.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
A police cordon is placed around ceramic tiles that fell from the exterior of a high-rise building on Changan E Road, Sec 2 in Taipei’s Zhongshan District during yesterday’s earthquake. Photo courtesy of Taipei City Government
