Editors‘ Note:
This article was compiled and written by xAI’s Grok and reviewed by the human editors of Eat News.
On April 22, 2024, a series of earthquakes struck the east coast of Taiwan, the strongest measuring 6.3 magnitude. This series of seismic events began on Monday night and continued into the early hours of Tuesday, causing widespread concern and disruption in Hualien County. The quakes were centered around the east coast of the island, with the epicenter located approximately 28 kilometers (17.5 miles) south of the city of Hualien.
Taiwan was hit with a series of earthquakes overnight into the early hours of Tuesday, April 23, 2024, with the strongest being a magnitude-6.3 tremor originating in eastern Hualien. The first significant quake, a magnitude-5.5, occurred on Monday at around 5:08 pm (0908 GMT). This was followed by a series of aftershocks and quakes, with two intense tremors hitting one after another around 2:30 am (1830 GMT) Tuesday, according to AFP reporters and witnesses in Taipei. The Central Weather Administration reported a magnitude-6.0 quake at 2:26 am, followed by the magnitude-6.3 tremor at 2:32 am. The U.S. Geological Survey recorded the first one as a magnitude-6.1, followed by a magnitude-6.0. Dozens of smaller tremors were recorded by the Central Weather Administration over the rest of the night, with a new one every few minutes, all in the Hualien region.
Strong tremors and aftershocks cause concern and disruption in Hualien County
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported more than 80 earthquakes in total, with magnitudes ranging from 4.5 to 6.3. The seismic activity has been particularly concentrated in the rural and mountainous Hualien County, an area already reeling from a devastating magnitude 7.4 earthquake earlier this month. That quake, which struck on April 3, 2024, claimed the lives of at least 13 people and injured over 1,000. It was the strongest earthquake to hit Taiwan in the past 25 years and was followed by hundreds of aftershocks.
Taiwan is no stranger to powerful earthquakes, and its high-tech island of 23 million residents has been relatively resilient due to its excellent earthquake preparedness. However, the toll on the country’s infrastructure and population has been significant.
This series of earthquakes comes after a magnitude-7.4 quake struck Taiwan on April 3, 2024, causing landslides and blocking off roads around the mountainous region. At least 17 people were killed in that quake, with the latest body found in a quarry on April 13, 2024. It was the most serious quake in Taiwan since 1999 when a magnitude-7.6 quake hit the island, causing the deadliest natural disaster in Taiwan’s history with 2,400 people killed.
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