A strong earthquake in Taiwan on Wednesday caused damage to dozens of buildings, triggered tsunami warnings that reached as far as Japan and the Philippines before being lifted, and left at least four dead and almost sixty injured.
Ahead of additional tremors in the coming days, officials indicated that the earthquake was the worst to strike the island in decades.
“The earthquake is shallow and occurs near land. The director of Taipei’s Central Weather Administration’s Seismology Center, Wu Chien-fu, stated that the earthquake is felt throughout Taiwan and the offshore islands.
Given that the island is located close to the meeting point of two tectonic plates, strict building codes and disaster awareness seem to have prevented a significant tragedy.
Wu claimed that the earthquake was the strongest since a 7.6-magnitude one that occurred in September 1999, the deadliest natural disaster in the history of the island, killing around 2,400 people.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) estimates that the epicentre of Wednesday’s magnitude 7.4 earthquake is located 18 kilometers south of Hualien City, Taiwan, and is 34.8 kilometers deep. The earthquake occurred just before 8 a.m. local time (12 a.m. GMT).
According to officials, three members of a party of seven who were hiking in the surrounding hills early in the morning were crushed to death by boulders that had been loosened by the earthquake.
Separately, a truck driver lost his life when a landslide struck his car as it neared a nearby tunnel.
Videos and pictures of buildings trembling around the nation were widely posted on social media after the earthquake struck.
“I wanted to flee, but I had no clothes on. That was really powerful, according to Kelvin Hwang, a visitor to a hotel in Taipei’s capital who took refuge in the ninth-floor elevator lobby.
After it ended, dramatic pictures of multi-story buildings in Hualien and other places tilting were displayed on local TV, and a warehouse in New Taipei City collapsed.
Local TV stations featured bulldozers removing rocks from the highways leading to Hualien, a seaside city surrounded by mountains and home to some 100,000 people before landslides cut it off.
Together with a call for coordination between regional and national government institutions, President Tsai Ing-wen announced that the national army will also be lending support.
The National Fire Agency verified the death toll and added that about 60 individuals were receiving treatment for injuries sustained during the earthquake.
Impact on the region
Authorities in Taiwan, Japan, and the Philippines first issued a tsunami warning, however the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center declared that the threat had “largely passed” by around 10 a.m. (2 a.m. GMT).
The metro in the nation’s capital briefly stopped operating but soon resumed, and local borough leaders issued cautions to citizens to check for any gas leaks.
Because Taiwan is located close to the meeting point of two tectonic plates, it is frequently struck by earthquakes; Japan, to the north, receives about 1,500 shockwaves annually.
Social media users in China’s eastern Fujian province, which borders Guangdong in the south, as well as other places reported feeling powerful earthquakes across the Taiwan Strait.
Hong Kong locals claimed to have felt the earthquake as well. According to state news agency Xinhua, China, which regards self-ruled Taiwan as a province with a rebellious past, was “paying close attention” to the earthquake and “willing to provide disaster relief assistance.”
The largest chip manufacturer in the world, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, reported to AFP that work at some of its factories had a temporary interruption in fabrication, and that work at sites where new plants are being built was suspended for the day.
The majority of earthquakes in the region are mild, although the extent of the damage they do varies depending on the epicentre’s position and depth below the Earth’s surface.
The power of tsunamis, which are enormous, potentially catastrophic waves that can travel hundreds of kilometers per hour, is also dependent on a number of variables.
The largest recorded earthquake in Japan occurred in March 2011 off the northeast coast of the country and measured 9.0 magnitude. The earthquake caused a tsunami that killed or left over 18,500 people missing.
The Fukushima nuclear facility experienced the biggest post-war disaster in Japan and the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl as a result of the 2011 tragedy, which also caused three reactors to melt down.
This year’s New Year’s Day in Japan was marked by a significant earthquake with a magnitude of 7.5 that struck the Noto Peninsula and killed over 230 people, many of whom perished when older buildings collapsed.
