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Large earthquake shakes southern Taiwan

The ceiling of the Chiayi District Prosecutors' Office building fell on the floor March 4 after a magnitude 6 earthquake hit southern Taiwan. (CNA)

• Publication Date：03/04/2010
• Source： Taiwan Today

A magnitude-6.4 earthquake felt throughout Taiwan struck Jiaxian Township in the southern county of Kaohsiung at 8:18 a.m. March 4.

The temblor was followed by many aftershocks ranging from magnitude 3.4 to 4.8. The quake’s epicenter was 17 kilometers southeast of the Jiaxian seismological sensing station, at a depth of 5 kilometers, according to the Central Weather Bureau’s Seismology Center.

An intensity of 6 was registered in Nanxi, Tainan County and Dapu, Chiayi County; 5 in areas in Pingtung and Yunlin counties; 4 in parts of Taitung County as well as Taitung, Tainan, Kaohsiung and Pingtung cities; 3 in Taichung, Nantou and Hualien cities, plus areas in Taichung, Hualien, Miaoli and Penghu counties; 2 in Taipei, Taoyuan, Hsinchu and Yilan cities; and 1 in Keelung City.

Chunghwa Telecom reported phone and Internet connections were swamped immediately following the quake as people attempted to contact friends and relatives living near the epicenter.

Scattered damage has been reported from different parts of southern Taiwan. Some landslides occurred in Jiaxian Township and Xiaolin Village, areas devasted by Typhoon Morakot last August.

Immediately following the earthquake flames burst out at an Everest Textile Co. Ltd. factory in Shanshang Township, Tainan County. As the facility was full of combustible materials, including fuel and toxic chemicals, the fire was still not under control by noon, despite the deployment of firefighting helicopters. One worker suffered a cut lip from a fall while running from the plant, but no other injuries were reported.

Another fire broke out in Chiayi City, and a man was injured by a falling tree in Chiayi County. In Kaohsiung County a worker in Shanlin Township was hospitalized after being hit by falling rock, and a homeowner in Meinong suffered broken limbs in the collapse of a house.

A wheel truck on a high-speed train northbound from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung City came slightly off the track when the quake struck. The train was immediately stopped, with no injuries to passengers. After one hour of repairs the train arrived safely at the Tainan Station. The Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp. temporarily stopped all trains south of Taichung, affecting approximately 2,400 travelers.

The Taiwan Railway Authority found the Zengwen River and Yanshui River bridges to be displaced, so service from Chiayi to Shanhua was temporarily suspended. Trains on the route are now traveling at speeds of 20-40 kilometers per hour.

The Gaomei Bridge on County Highway 181 in Kaohsiung County has been closed due to fractures in the abutment guardrail and subsidence of 15 centimeters in the approach embankment on the Meinong side.

Kuo Kai-wen, director of the Seismology Center, said the earthquake was located in the fault zone east of the Chaozhou fault. The main cause of the temblor was the release of energy stored in the area resulting from the Philippine Sea Plate pushing continually northeast against the Eurasian Plate. “Records show that this was the first quake exceeding magnitude 6 in this fault zone in the last 100 years,” he added. (THN)