People around the island felt the ground shake at 1:11 p.m. Sunday. The shaking continued for the next minute. It turned out to be a magnitude 6.5 earthquake that originated from Yilan''s Nan''ao Township. The greater Taipei area registered a magnitude of four from the temblor, the strongest of the year so far. Aftershocks rippled from the epicenter just one minute after the initial quake.
Chen Kuo-chang
Chief of Seismological Center, CWB
The two earthquakes were actually from the same sequence. They were slightly apart because they both occurred from a subduction zone. Earthquakes sometimes occur from subduction zones, but they rarely reach this magnitude. Most register between five and six. Today’s quake was the only one that surpassed six in the last two to three decades. Earthquakes in subduction zones release energy very quickly, and also end very quickly. Of course at higher magnitudes, there would be some weaker aftershocks. We believe there may likely be magnitude 4.0 aftershocks in the next three days, but there won’t be many.
The earthquake also disrupted public transportation systems including the Taiwan rail, the high speed rail, and the Taipei and Taoyuan MRTs. Trains were halted until their tracks and electrical systems were fully inspected.