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Friday, July 17, 2009

Quakes Galore Lately

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Scott Oakes passed around this link to the CWB site listing recent quakes -- seems like the fault off I-lan there has been very active of late. To wit:

Date -- time -- magnitude -- location
2009/07/17 02:42 5.0 64.4 km E of Hualien City
2009/07/16 18:48 5.2 55.8 km ENE of Hualien City
2009/07/15 18:53 4.1 29.0 km WSW of Hualien City
2009/07/15 18:37 5.0 19.6 km SW of Hualien City
2009/07/14 11:24 4.0 32.1 km NNE of Hualien City
2009/07/14 04:28 5.1 58.7 km ENE of Hualien City
2009/07/14 02:05 6.3 57.1 km E of Hualien City
2009/07/14 02:02 4.0 33.0 km NNE of Hualien City

On the original page the location links to maps with additional data.

Hope all this activity doesn't portend something major.

Treasure trove: This government website with posters about local active faults, geological prospecting, etc, in English and Chinese. Beautiful stuff there, and incredibly informative.

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6 comments:

  1. That’s not a bad thing – it means the fault is slipping little by little instead of storing up energy for a big one. That’s only a general rule though. And it’s more typical behavior of faults right after a big one… could be residual effects from 1999 or from ground movement that didn’t result in a large earthquake.

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  2. That EQ that hit us at 2:05 am a few day ago rocked, I mean really rocked my 12 story building in central Taipei. I thought for a few moments that my house would pancake. It was almost as big as 921.

    It was surprising that on the TV right afterwards, there wasn't a blip of news about it. I keep the TV on for at least 30 minutes but still nothing. It seems the Taiwanese are just getting use to EQs again ~ big mistake.

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  3. I read a few months ago that typhoons actually may cause earthquakes.

    http://www.physorg.com/news163859251.html

    This is a good thing though. The more frequent minor earthquakes prevent the type of really big quakes that jolt Japan. Taiwan is on the same fault system, so there should be no reason why Taiwan's quakes are smaller. This article provides an interesting explanation. Of course, this does not mean a really big one will hit from time to time.

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  4. Or it could indeed be Chen's fault.

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  5. I got an email today about an earthquake predicted to take place on July 22nd in an area that covers Japan and Taiwan. I'm forwarding Michael that email. Better be informed than surprised. -- Herman

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