Taiwan hit by several quakes, strongest reaching 6.1-magnitude

Taiwan hit by several quakes, strongest reaching 6.1-magnitude
by AFP Staff Writers
Taipei (AFP) April 26, 2024

Taiwan was hit by a series of at least 10 earthquakes in the early hours of Saturday, with the strongest reaching 6.1 magnitude, according to the island's Central Weather Administration.

No tsunami warning reports followed the earthquakes, which triggered mobile phone alarms in capital Taipei, an AFP journalist said, and came just several days after dozens of quakes shook the island.

The strongest 6.1-magnitude earthquake occurred just off the coast at 2:21 am (1821 GMT) at a shallow depth of 24.9 kilometers (15.5 miles).

It was followed by several smaller shocks before another strong quake at 2:49 am (1849 GMT), which occurred on land around 40 kilometers from Hualien City on the east coast, at a depth of 18.9 kilometers.

A total of ten quakes of varying magnitude were recorded after midnight on Saturday, according to Taiwan's weather agency.

The National Fire Agency said there were no immediate reports of damage.

The spate comes after buildings in Taiwan were left swaying at the beginning of the week by a series of quakes, with one reaching 6.3 magnitude in eastern Hualien.

The government said they were aftershocks from a deadly magnitude-7.4 quake that hit the island more than two weeks ago, which Taiwan said was the "strongest in 25 years."

At least 17 people were killed after the quake triggered landslides that blocked roads and severely damaged buildings around the main Hualien city.

Magnitude 6.5 earthquake strikes off Indonesia's Java island: authorities
Jakarta (AFP) April 27, 2024 - A magnitude-6.5 earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia's Java island on Saturday, the country's Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysical Agency (BMKG) reported.

The quake, which the United States Geological Survey recorded at a magnitude of 6.1, was felt in capital Jakarta -- where people were forced to evacuate buildings -- and in nearby Bandung.

"I screamed to my wife and kids to tell them to get out of the house," Iman Krisnawan, a 47-year-old resident of Bandung, told AFP.

"Usually, earthquakes lasted about 5 seconds, this one lasted between 10-15 seconds."

There was no tsunami alert, according to BMKG. The USGS reported the depth at 68.3 kilometres (42 miles).

Indonesia, a vast archipelago nation, experiences frequent earthquakes due to its position on the Pacific "Ring of Fire", an arc of intense seismic activity where tectonic plates collide that stretches from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.

A magnitude-6.2 quake that shook Sulawesi island in January 2021 killed more than 100 people and left thousands homeless.

In 2018, a magnitude-7.5 quake and subsequent tsunami in Palu on Sulawesi killed more than 2,200 people.

And in 2004, a magnitude-9.1 quake struck Aceh province, causing a tsunami and killing more than 170,000 people in Indonesia.