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Earthquake in Taiwan measuring 6.4, strong shock causes 27 injuries, collapses and landslides on the island

Credit: USGS

A violent earthquake magnitude 6.4 hit theisland of Taiwan on January 20th at 00:17 local (5.17pm yesterday in Italy) at approx 12km from Yujing City. The earthquake was felt distinctly in a large part of the country and, unfortunately, the tremors caused 27 injuredin addition to the partial collapse of many houses and landslides scattered throughout the territory. The shock, whose depth is just 9.7 kmwas followed by a seismic sequence consisting mainly of three earthquakes respectively magnitude 5.1 (local time 12.26pm), 4.8 (at 1.42pm) e 4.7 (at 4.05pm).

As often happens in these cases, the magnitude is not yet fully confirmed: according to the Central Weather Administration of the country the shock would be 6.4, while it would have a magnitude of 6.0 for the USGS (United States Geological Service) and 6.3 for the INGV. These are similar values ​​which will converge in the next few hours following more in-depth analyses.

Previous earthquakes and the causes of frequent earthquakes in Taiwan

But what caused the earthquake in Taiwan? The country is very seismic (the strongest earthquake in recent years was of magnitude 7.4 last April which caused at least 7 deaths) and has a rather complex seismic history linked to subduction from the Philippine plate below that of Sunda. This flow, over time, gave rise to numerous tremors, the strongest of which reached magnitude 8.1 (in 1910) e 8.2 (in 1920). Obviously the country has equipped itself over time to deal with this geological context and one of the most famous solutions is that of anti-seismic sphere present inside the Taipei 101 skyscraper.

But how exactly does it work? To find out more here is a video ad hoc on the topic:

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