Magnitude 4.0 earthquake rattles southwestern Taiwan

台灣西南部發生4.0級地震

Magnitude 4.0 earthquake jolted Chiayi County in southwestern Taiwan


TAIPEI (Taiwan News) -- A magnitude 4.0 earthquake shook southwestern Taiwan's Chiayi County last night (April 15) at 10 p.m. last night, according to the Central Weather Bureau (CWB).

The epicenter of yesterday's temblor was 44.6 kilometers east-southeast of Chiayi County Hall, at a depth of 5 kilometers, reported the CWB.

An intensity level o f 4 was felt in Chiayi County, an intensity level of 2 was registered in Kaohsiung City and Yunlin County, and an intensity level of 1 was recorded in Tainan City, Yunlin County and Changhua County.

No injuries were reported at the time of publication.

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.

In the first three months of this year, the number of earthquakes recorded in Taiwan has been higher than the annual average over the previous three years, primarily due to aftershocks from the deadly magnitude 6.0 Hualien Earthquake on Feb. 6, according to the CWB.