Taiwan Earthquake Strikes: 6.5 Quake Rattles Island

TAIPEI, Taiwan — An earthquake struck off the southeast coast of Taiwan on Monday, causing buildings to sway briefly but no casualties or damage. The temblor was felt at the site of a massive landslide in northern Taiwan but did not hamper rescue efforts.

The 6.5-magnitude quake hit at 10:59 a.m. (0259 GMT), 195 miles (295 kilometers) off the southern Taiwan city of Taitung at a depth of 6.2 miles (10 kilometers), the U.S. Geological Survey said. The agency's initial report had put the quake's magnitude at 6.9.

In Taipei, buildings swayed for up to 20 seconds when the quake hit, but police said there were no reports of casualties or damage anywhere on the island. No tsunami alert was issued.

In northern Keelung county, 18 miles (30 kilometers) northeast of Taipei, the tremor caused little new damage at the site of a massive landslide, police said. On Sunday, a hillside collapsed onto a three-lane highway following several days of rain, burying three cars.

Many of the hundreds of workers digging through the rubble felt the temblor but went on searching for the four passengers believed to have been buried in the cars, police said.

Earthquakes frequently rattle Taiwan but most are minor and cause little or no damage.

However, a 7.6-magnitude earthquake in central Taiwan in 1999 killed more than 2,300 people.

Comments

[deepintheheartoftejas]

12:57 AM on 04/27/2010

OK, apart from boobies, it's a 6.5 magnitude earthquake. According to statistics kept since the late 19th century, there are an average of 134 earthquakes a year in the 6.0-6.9 range. One every 2 days and 16 hours. That gives a lot of potential headline news about the "earthquake epidemic" for the weeks and months to come.

[deepintheheartoftejas]

12:52 AM on 04/27/2010

EEEEAAGGH!

BOOBIES!

[luis sancho]

03:05 PM on 04/26/2010

The present surge in earthquake activity might be anthropic. 2010 is statistically the highest year on record on earthquakes for all categories, except for the man-made surge during II world war carpet bombing in 1943. If we consider only the statistics for April it is an all time record. But what has humanity done this April 2010, to create fluctuations in the gravitational and magnetic fields of the earth responsible for magma motions that cause earthquakes? Very simple: we have switched on what is today the strongest gravitomagnetic field on this planet, the Large Hadron Collider. This machine that could latter in the decade at higher energy/mass produce strangelets (Pb-pb collisions) and black holes (over 10 Tev collisions), is today the strongest gravitomagnetic field on Earth.
There are 3 possible ways in which the LHC can cause earthquakes:
A)If it made black holes or strangelets that are now in the center of the Earth, slowly eating the planet.
B) If the magnetic field interacts with other magnetic fields in the magma.
C) If it produces gravitational waves which could provoke a butterfly effect: mass displacements in the magma that trigger Earthquakes.
A cautionary stop of that machine and serious studies on its effects, is long overdue.
www.cerntruth.com

[alysheba 3]

10:49 AM on 04/26/2010

Mother Nature is sure letting us know what she thinks of our arrogance.

[liberallydemocrat]

09:15 AM on 04/26/2010

Another one? Mother nature must've had a bad ass breakup.