Magnitude 5.0 earthquake shakes eastern Taiwan's Hualien

台灣花蓮東部6.0級地震

Magnitude 5.0 earthquake rattles Taiwan's Hualien County


TAIPEI (Taiwan News) -- A magnitude 5.0 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien at 11:58 p.m. this evening (Feb. 5), according to the Central Weather Bureau (CWB), the latest in the series of temblors that have plagued the area for two days now.

The epicenter of the latest quake was 19.3 kilometers north, northeast of Hualien County hall, at a shallow depth of 10 kilometers.

An intensity level of 5 was felt in Hualien, Yilan County reported a level of 4, Central Hualien Country felt a level of 3, and Nantou County, Taichung City and Yunlin County registered a level of 2. Much of the rest of the upper two thirds of the island reported an intensity level of 1.


No injuries were reported at the time of publication.

On Sunday, a magnitude 5.8 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien at 9:56 p.m., with several aftershocks striking within minutes afterwards, punctuating a busy day of seismic activity around the island. The epicenter of Sunday's largest quake was 27.8 kilometers northeast of Hualien County Hall at a shallow depth of 16 kilometers.

An intensity level of 5 was felt in Hualien and Yilan, Nantou registered an intensity level of 4, while Taichung, Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Yunlin, Taipei City and New Taipei City felt an intensity level of 3.

Located along the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, Taiwan uses an intensity scale of 1 to 7, which gauges the degree to which a quake is felt in a specific location.