Anxious Taiwan... "Cannot rule out aftershocks of magnitude 7 or higher"

Emeritus Professor of Geology at National Taiwan University Reveals on Facebook

Rescue workers are looking at a severely tilted building in Hualien city due to the magnitude 7.4 earthquake that occurred on the 3rd in the eastern region of Taiwan.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

On the 3rd, a magnitude 7.2 earthquake caused 19 casualties in Taiwan, and Taiwanese experts have analyzed that aftershocks of magnitude 7 or higher cannot be ruled out.

According to Taiwanese media such as China Times and United Daily News on the 28th, Professor Emeritus Chen Yuanshan of the Department of Geology at National Taiwan University stated this on Facebook the day before.

Earlier, a magnitude 7.2 earthquake occurred in Hualien, eastern Taiwan, on the 3rd, resulting in 19 deaths and missing persons. The seismic intensity scale ranges from '0', where people cannot feel shaking and it is only recorded by seismographs, to '7', where standing is impossible.

Professor Emeritus Chen explained that 90% of the aftershocks following the magnitude 7.2 earthquake in the eastern Hualien area on the 3rd occurred along the Lingding Fault where the earthquake originated.

He further explained that the Lingding Fault is connected to the Rueisuei Fault in the Hualien area, the Liji-Luye Fault in the Taitung area, and the Cishang Fault in the Taitung area, with a total length of about 170 km.

He predicted that relatively large aftershocks have occurred along the fault plane and that aftershocks could continue to occur over a short period.

Professor Emeritus Chen noted that on or around October 22, 1951, two earthquakes of magnitudes 7.1 and 7.0 occurred offshore in the Hualien area. He emphasized that on November 25 of the same year, a magnitude 7.0 aftershock occurred again in the eastern Taitung area.

He also predicted that since there have been no major earthquakes in the northern parts of the Chimei Fault, Liji-Luye Fault, and Cishang Fault in the Hualien area over the past 100 years, careful observation is necessary.

The Central Weather Bureau of Taiwan announced that from the 3rd to 8 p.m. on the 27th, there have been 1,313 aftershocks. In fact, on the 22nd (local time), at 11:11:24 p.m. (Korean time), a magnitude 5.9 earthquake occurred 24 km south-southwest of Hualien County, Taiwan. The depth of the earthquake was 9 km.