Open AccessTaiwan shaken by an uncommon earthquake
Author(s) -
Chao Benjamin F.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
eos, transactions american geophysical union
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.316
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 2324-9250
pISSN - 0096-3941
DOI - 10.1029/2007eo010003
Subject(s) - aftershock , seismology , geology , epicenter , magnitude (astronomy) , moment magnitude scale , subduction , continental shelf , foreshock , shock (circulatory) , oceanography , tectonics , medicine , physics , geometry , mathematics , astronomy , scaling
Exactly 2 years to the date after the great Sumatra earthquake, the island of Taiwan was shaken by an uncommon magnitude 7.1 earthquake and a series of aftershocks centered just off her southwestern coast on the continental shelf. The event is the largest in a century in that particular area, technically controlled by the subduction of the Eurasia plate under the Philippine plate, a rare and peculiar case of a lighter continental plate subducting under a heavier oceanic plate. The main shock, at 1226 UT, 26 December 2006, had a moment magnitude of 7.1 as determined by the U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC/USGS), followed by a 7.0 aftershock 8 minutes later, and three more subsequent aftershocks above magnitude 5 within a day. Relatively minor damage was reported on land, while underwater communication cables were severed at as many as seven locations at different times. A nearby nuclear power plant experienced a g ‐force as large as 0.16 g . A tsunami warning was issued in Vietnam and the Philippines but was later called off. The Broadband Array in Taiwan for Seismology (BATS) put the main shock depth at somewhat over 20 kilometers and deeper for the large aftershocks. The water depth at the epicenter region is no more than 600 meters.