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Strong earthquakes continued on the 18th (local time) in Taiwan and Japan. The two countries belong to the seismic belt of the Pacific coast known as the “Ring of Fire”.
A 6.8 magnitude earthquake occurred at 2:44 pm in eastern Taiwan on the same day. A three-story building collapsed in the eastern district of Hualien. Firefighters rescued four people from the building that day. When the station platform ceiling collapsed, six carriages of the moving train derailed. Bridges and school buildings in Runtian and other areas also collapsed.
The earthquake also caused power outages in Hualien, Taipei and Kaohsiung. The United States Tsunami Warning Center (TWC) has issued a tsunami warning for Taiwan and the Japanese Meteorological Agency has issued a tsunami warning for the Miyakojima and Yaeyama regions of Okinawa Prefecture.
At around 5:39 pm that day, a 5.8 magnitude earthquake occurred in an area 80 km southwest of Hualien in eastern Taiwan. The Taiwan Meteorological Agency said the earthquake was the main earthquake of the recent series of earthquakes. At 9:41 pm the day before, a magnitude 6.4 earthquake occurred in the city of Guanshan, Taitung County.
At 5:10 pm that day, a 6.1 magnitude earthquake occurred in an area 178 km west of Okinawa in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. Then, at 7:05 pm, a 5.5 magnitude earthquake occurred in a sea area 179 km west of Okinawa.
Journalist Lee Go-woon [email protected]
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