Mondo Taiwan - Mondo Earthquake 9/21/99 (921)

Nothing visible above (except the warning) was put here by Mondo Taiwan

MIDI from the game "Doom"
by Robert Prince

IT'S NOT YET HERE: MONDO TAIWAN 2002
(The vegetarian version?!)
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MONDO EARTHQUAKE Last update to this page: Wednessday, 10/9/2002, 11:04 PM Taiwan time Toppled--the Taichung Bus Station

Taichung City, 9/21/99
See the Central Weather Bureau's 8 MB AVI computer animation of the earthquake's vibrations here, or view my own 801 KB GIF version of the same file here. (Will open in a new window.)
My own photos taken in
Taichung City the morning of
the quake can be viewed here.
Photos taken in the devastated town of Tungshih the morning of the quake can be viewed here.
Photo essays from
Time and BBC
More photos from Taiwan Radio (and others)
and photo links from Yang-Yang Juan
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or directly to the news section.

IMPORTANT LINKS:

Taiwan Central Weather Bureau's daily earthquake reports

NEW!
(added 9/6/2002)
"Live" earthquake maps
From the National Earthquake Information Service

"Realtime" seismic readings from the Seismology Center
Updated every minute. Seismic activity is indicated by the flashing links. You might be amazed to see how often quakes are occurring! I certainly was! (Although it's in Chinese, you can follow the numbers: month, date, hour, minute.)

Daily Taiwan-related news in English and Taiwanese on
Monkey Boy's Taiwanese Language Page

Yahoo's "Full Coverage" + more links

Seattle Times: How to help the victims

English news from Taiwan's Yamweb

Taiwan's English News Sources:
Taipei Times
Taiwan News
China Post
Central News Agency
China Times
(Zhong Guó Shí Bào)

(A better-looking version of the CNA link above?)

English Radio:
Int'l Community Radio Taipei

HAVING PROBLEMS FINDING OLD IMAGES?

The Taiwan Central Weather Bureau has done yet more reformatting of their website (especially affecting Mondo Taiwan's links to reports obtained from their quake report page). Their list of this month's quakes now includes the time and magnitude of each, giving the visitor a "preview" of the text or image files' contents. While this part is a slight improvement over the old "no-frills" page, they've simultaneously gone and screwed up the links to many of the older GIF images by changing the URLs. Now they've gone and renamed directories and more, but I've fixed all the links back to January 1, 2001 (I think!). Even their link to "last month's quakes" doesn't work, but Mondo Taiwan's does (usually). Anyway, NONE of the above links may be accurate at all by the time you read this 'cuz they keep changing the damn thing!

THERE WERE A TOTAL OF 136 (and two-halves?) QUAKES (more than 11 per month) IN TAIWAN DEEMED WORTHY OF BEING REPORTED BY THE CWB IN THE YEAR 2001 -- (27 OF THOSE [about one in five] HAVING A MAGNITUDE OF 5.0 OR GREATER, 3 OF THOSE HAVING A MAGNITUDE OF 6.0 OR GREATER). (The info on quakes which occurred in 2001 can be found here.)

THERE HAVE BEEN A TOTAL OF 154 (and a half?) QUAKES (more than 1 quake every other day) IN TAIWAN DEEMED WORTHY OF BEING REPORTED BY THE CWB SINCE JANUARY 1, 2002 -- (45 OF THOSE (more than one in four) HAVING A MAGNITUDE OF 5.0 OR GREATER, 7 OF THOSE HAVING A MAGNITUDE OF 6.0 OR GREATER).

(MT) Wednesday, October 9, 2002, 11:01 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - Since this afternoon's report, two more earthquakes have struck different areas of Taiwan:

2:28 PM, 32.9 km east of Ilan, depth 63.4 km, magnitude 4.6. View data here.
7:54 PM, 38.7 km ESE of Taitung, depth 24.5 km, magnitude 5.0. View data here.
(MT) Wednesday, October 9, 2002, 2:19 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - Another quake -- nearly identical to yesterday afternoon's quake in size, time, and location -- shook a small area of northeastern Taiwan this afternoon:

12:56 PM, 34.4 km NNE of Hualien, depth 13.3 km, magnitude 4.2. View data here.
(MT) Tuesday, October 8, 2002, 12:50 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - This quake rocked the Hualien area just about half an hour ago:

12:18 PM, 32.5 km NNE of Hualien, depth 12.6 km, magnitude 4.3. View data here.
(MT) Monday, October 7, 2002, 4:08 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - Two quakes occurred within 90 minutes of each other but in different areas this morning:

7:38 AM, 56.2 km SE of Ilan, depth 5.3 km, magnitude 5.0. View data here.
8:55 AM, 39.3 km north of Yushan (practically atop Sun Moon Lake), depth 7.8 km, magnitude 4.4. View data here.
(MT) Tuesday, October 1, 2002, 2:19 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - A quake occurred this morning quite near the epicenter of yesterday's tremor:

7:50 AM, 26.1 km SE of Chiayi, depth 10.8 km, magnitude 4.1. View data here.
(MT) Monday, September 30, 2002, 5:23 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - This quake startled me out of my chair as if someone had kicked it nearly an hour ago:

4:35 PM, 27.3 km SE of Chiayi, depth 5.2 km, magnitude 5.3. View data here.
(MT) Friday, September 27, 2002, 1:34 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - This quake, still not on the CWB's English site at the time of this post, gave me a jolt that startled me out of my chair a short while ago:

1:07 PM, 24.4 km WSW of Techi (28.4 east of where I'm sitting), depth 5.5 km, magnitude 4.8. View data in Chinese (GIF format) here, or finally (requiring a bit of "digging" on my part) in English here.
(MT) Wednesday, September 25, 2002, 3:52 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - After almost a week with no reports, this quake struck southeastern Taiwan early this morning:

6:43 AM, 13.4 km WSW of Taitung, depth 10.7 km, magnitude 5.0. View data here.
(MT) Thursday, September 19, 2002, 4:21 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - Today's seismicity thusfar:

12:21 PM, 27.6 km WNW of Yushan, depth 11.5 km, magnitude 4.5. View data here.
(MT) Wednesday, September 18, 2002, 12:13 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - This quake occurred near Taiwan's nuclear waste dump this morning:

10:21 AM, 30.1 km SE of Lanyu, depth 12 km, magnitude 4.7. View data here.
(MT) Monday, September 16, 2002, 12:58 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - Although the Central Weather Bureau says this whopper went undetected in Taichung City, it woke me up and then shook me for at least 20 seconds:

8:03 AM, 70.7 km SSE of Pengchiayu (62.7 east of Keelung, according to the Chinese version -- as if English speakers would be more familiar with Pengchiayu), depth 173.6 km, magnitude 6.8. View data in English here or in Chinese here.
(MT) Sunday, September 15, 2002, 9:11 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - This quake shook northern Taiwan just over 12 hours ago:

9:06 AM, 73.7 km east of Hualien, depth 3.7 km, magnitude 5.5. View data here.
(MT) Friday, September 13, 2002, 12:32 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - The Central Weather Bureau was a bit slow in posting this small quake, as even at 2:00 this morning it was still not listed on their website:

Thursday, 4:31 PM, 12.1 km NNE of Hualien, depth 12.1 km, magnitude 3.8. View data here.
(MT) Tuesday, September 10, 2002, 4:59 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - Yet another magnitude 5.5 quake rocked my building a few minutes ago:

4:38 PM, 30.5 km ENE of Ilan, depth 102.4 km, magnitude 5.5. View data here.
(MT) Sunday, September 8, 2002, 2:19 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - Another magnitude 5.5 quake hit Taiwan this morning -- this time in Ilan County in the northeast:

6:59 AM, 35.1 km south of Ilan, depth 40 km, magnitude 5.5. View data here.
(MT) Friday, September 6, 2002, 8:21 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - Sitting in a restaurant a little over an hour ago waiting for my meal to arrive, this nearby quake rocked the house:

7:02 PM, 28.6 km SSE of Taichung, depth 26 km, magnitude 5.5. View data here.
(MT) Thursday, September 5, 2002, 1:07 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - I thought that all the seismometers were broken! After a single day with four quakes, four days passed with no reports. Well, maybe the ones in Ilan and Hualien are still working because there's one report from just a short while ago:

12:43 PM, 32.1 km SSE of Ilan, depth 11.5 km, magnitude 4.1. View data here.
(MT) Sunday, September 1, 2002, 11:22 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - Today's fourth quake turned out to be only slightly larger than the first quake of the day:

8:35 PM, 16.7 km NNE of Hualien, depth 12.8 km, magnitude 4.1. View data here.
(MT) Sunday, September 1, 2002, 3:42 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - Taiwan was hit by three quakes so far today -- each being larger than the one before (and I hope they don't get any bigger!), and felt across most of the island. One might deduce simply from the data maps that Taichung had felt something (Miaoli to the north and Changhua to the south both reported measurable seismic activity), but the CWB says that neither of the larger quakes were detected by seismometers here, and I know for a fact (via my "internal" seismometer) that the third of these quakes was felt here. What follows is the information provided by the Taiwan Central Weather Bureau's seismologists:

4:22 AM, 17.2 km WSW of Hualien, depth 17.1 km, magnitude 4.0. View data here.
1:56 PM, 68.7 km east of Hualien, depth 2.5 km, magnitude 5.6. View data here.
3:07 PM, 104.7 km east of Hualien, depth 35.5 km, magnitude 6.0. View data here.
(MT) Friday, August 30, 2002, 1:05 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - Another sizable quake rocked northeastern Taiwan early this morning:

4:05 AM, 6.7 km NE of Ilan, depth 83 km, magnitude 5.6. View data here.
(MT) Thursday, August 29, 2002, 10:28 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - This is my third quake report within 21 hours. Given the size of the tremor, the TV news seemed to go a bit overboard with their reports without mentioning this fact. What I also found strange was that these past three quakes were in very different areas:

9:36 PM, 42.4 km north of Yushan (practically on top of Sun Moon Lake), depth 24.2 km, magnitude 4.8. View data here.
(MT) Thursday, August 29, 2002, 1:52 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - Another quake struck Taiwan in the wee hours this morning -- this one on the northeast coast. While being only a magnitude-4.6 quake, the CWB says it was felt as a "5" in Ilan -- 37.1 km from the epicenter. I'm telling you, there's something wrong with their system! Here's the lowdown:

4:01 AM, 37.1 km SSE of Ilan, depth 16.5 km, magnitude 4.6. View data here.
(MT) Thursday, August 29, 2002, 1:26 AM, Taichung, Taiwan - A big quake off the southeastern coast shook most of Taiwan, and had me heading for the door a short while ago despite the CWB reporting it as being felt as only a magnitude-1 quake (undetectable by humans) here in Taichung:

1:05 AM, 27.2 km NW of Lanyu, depth 13.2 km, magnitude 6.0. View data here.
(MT) Tuesday, August 27, 2002, 1:58 AM, Taichung, Taiwan - A sizable offshore quake occurred off the coast of Hualien before midnight. Its depth and distance from land probably prevented any impact from occurring on Taiwan, but the CWB's screwy seismographs show that it was felt as a magnitude-1 in Yunlin County while skipping Nantou County entirely:

Monday, 11:32 PM, 89.7 km east of Hualien, depth 79.2 km, magnitude 5.5. View data here.
(MT) Friday, August 23, 2002, 12:28 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - This quake struck just off the northeast coast of Taiwan this morning:

10:32 AM, 42.2 km SSE of Ilan, depth 29.3 km, magnitude 4.4. View data here.
(MT) Tuesday, August 20, 2002, 11:00 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - Two quakes occurred far from each other earlier this evening:

6:01 PM, 26.2 km SW of Yushan, depth 15 km, magnitude 4.3. View data here.
9:31 PM, 15.4 km west of Ilan, depth 63.9 km, magnitude 4.6. View data here.
(MT) Friday, August 16, 2002, 12:25 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - Another quake struck off the Ilan coast this morning:

11:25 AM, 34.6 km SSE of Ilan, depth 18.4 km, magnitude 4.3. View data here.
(MT) Thursday, August 15, 2002, 1:02 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - A larger quake struck just offshore near the Ilan-Hualien County border this morning:

7:28 AM, 39.1 km SSE of Ilan, depth 20.1 km, magnitude 5.1. View data here.
(MT) Monday, August 12, 2002, 1:10 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - Another quake struck northeastern Taiwan later yesterday -- this one nearer to Ilan:

Sunday, 9:14 PM, 34.1 km south of Ilan, depth 6.5 km, magnitude 4.0. View data here.
(MT) Sunday, August 11, 2002, 3:58 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - A smaller quake than yesterday's occurred in almost the same location near Hualien this morning:

10:42 AM, 20 km NNE of Hualien, depth 10 km, magnitude 4.2. View data here.
(MT) Sunday, August 11, 2002, 12:48 AM, Taichung, Taiwan - A larger quake occurred near Hualien Saturday afternoon:

Saturday, 5:03 PM, 21.1 km NNE of Hualien, depth 4.7 km, magnitude 5.1. View data here.
(MT) Monday, August 5, 2002, 10:46 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - A small quake was reported this afternoon on Taiwan's east coast:

4:39 PM, 7.6 km north of Hualien, depth 10.1 km, magnitude 3.8. View data here.
(MT) Thursday, August 1, 2002, 3:23 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - Two weeks is a long time -- in Taiwan -- to not hear any quake reports. Here's the first one in a fortnight:

10:15 AM, 40.3 km NNE of Hualien, depth 13.3 km, magnitude 4.3. View data here.
(MT) Friday, July 19, 2002, 10:08 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - Yet another large quake struck off the southern tip of Taiwan yesterday while my Internet connection was down:

Thursday, 12:52 PM, 53.6 km west of Hengchun, depth 82.1 km, magnitude 5.4. View data here.
(MT) Sunday, July 14, 2002, 8:57 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - Another large quake struck way off the coast of Hualien (almost to the edge of the CWB's map) last night. Here are the stats:

Saturday, 8:07 PM, 136.4 km east of Hualien, depth 20 km, magnitude 5.3. View data here.
(MT) Thursday, July 11, 2002, 4:02 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - A large quake struck off the coast of Hualien a short time ago, but was powerful enough to shake me on this side of the island. Here's what I could dig up from the CWB (which as of this time still has a link to quake #112):

3:36 PM, 73.8 km east of Hualien, depth 3.2 km, magnitude 5.9. View data here.
(MT) Sunday, July 7, 2002, 11:02 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - After nearly 2 weeks with no reported quakes, this deep but sizeable quake hit near the border of Hualien and Nantou Counties earlier this evening:

6:01 PM, 32.4 km NW of Hualien, depth 66.5 km, magnitude 5.0. View data here.
(MT) Monday, June 24, 2002, 1:17 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - Another sizeable quake hit Taiwan this morning, shaking at least the northern two-thirds of the island:

9:12 AM, 10.9 km NW of Hualien, depth 17.1 km, magnitude 5.1. View data here.
(MT) Monday, June 24, 2002, 12:50 AM, Taichung, Taiwan - The CWB reported two quakes earlier Sunday night. The first of these was an offshore quake with a magnitude of 5.0, and the second has dubious data, being reported on the Chinese version of the website as a "local quake" and on both the English and Chinese sites as being quake #"000." Here's the basic data along with links to the CWB's data maps:

Sunday, 5:19 PM, 37.2 km west of Kaohsiung, depth 16.1 km, magnitude 5.0. View data here.
Sunday, 6:17 PM, 5.6 km NW of Chiayi, depth 9.8 km, magnitude 3.0. View data in English here or in Chinese (as a graphic) here.
(MT) Friday, June 21, 2002, 2:07 AM, Taichung, Taiwan - Thursday evening, this quake occurred near the border of Taitung and Kaohsiung Counties:

Thursday, 8:17 PM, 27.9 km WNW of Taitung, depth 7 km, magnitude 4.5. View data here.
(MT) Tuesday, June 18, 2002, 2:35 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - A quake occurred off the coast of Ilan before dawn today:

4:19 AM, 26.7 km ENE of Ilan, depth 8.9 km, magnitude 4.5. View data here.
(MT) Monday, June 17, 2002, 12:30 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - Another two quakes off the coast of Ilan escaped my immediate attention yesterday evening:

Sunday, 6:41 PM, 38 km east of Ilan, depth 5.1 km, magnitude 4.3. View data here.
Sunday, 9:06 PM, 32.1 km ENE of Ilan, depth 12.2 km, magnitude 4.8. View data here.
(MT) Saturday, June 15, 2002, 6:11 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - Two more quakes have hit since my last report. Last night's quake was offshore near the Hualien-Taitung border; today's quake was right on the Ilan coastline. Here are the main details:

Friday, 8:52 PM, 48.3 km NE of Chengkung, depth 53.4 km, magnitude 5.0. View data here.
Saturday, 3:27 PM, 14 km SE of Ilan, depth 15 km, magnitude 4.4. View data here.
(MT) Friday, June 14, 2002, 3:39 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - This quake off the coast of Hualien gave me more of an adrenaline rush than I actually wanted to feel today. I still think the CWB's seismic sensors are a bit screwy. Humans can barely feel a magnitude-2 quake (if at all) -- as this one was measured by Taichung's seismographs -- but I most certainly felt it:

3:22 PM, 51.9 km south of Hualien, depth 24.9 km, magnitude 5.5. View data here.
(MT) Friday, June 14, 2002, 2:51 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - This offshore quake hit near Ilan before dawn today:

4:40 AM, 31.4 km east of Ilan, depth 6.8 km, magnitude 5.0. View data here.
(MT) Thursday, June 13, 2002, 11:02 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - Two more quakes were reported by the quake today, bringing the total number of those reported so far this year to over 100. As often happens, there is questionable data associated with one of these tremors. The second of these -- a 4.2 quake -- is said to have been felt as having a magnitude of 5 somewhere away from the epicenter. Can anyone explain that to me? Here are the main details:

9:23 AM, 27.4 km SSE of Ilan, depth 13.1 km, magnitude 4.6. View data here.
10:58 AM, 28.2 km SSE of Ilan, depth 8.1 km, magnitude 4.2. View data here.
(MT) Wednesday, June 12, 2002, 1:03 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - After more than a week with no quake reports, this one showed up in the vicinity of Sun Moon Lake earlier this evening:

7:57 PM, 42.9 km ESE of Taichung, depth 3.3 km, magnitude 4.3. View data here.
(MT) Tuesday, June 4, 2002, 1:03 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - There was a quake just off the coast of Ilan late last night:

Monday, 11:25 PM, 29.3 km east of Ilan, depth 11.4 km, magnitude 4.2. View data here.
(MT) Saturday, June 1, 2002, 1:13 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - An onshore quake shook Hualien and nearby areas around noon today:

12:13 PM, 20.2 km NW of Hualien, depth 14.9 km, magnitude 4.0. View data here.
(MT) Friday, May 31, 2002, 4:56 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - This quake occurred off the coast of Taitung early this morning:

1:27 AM, 22.5 km east of Taitung, depth 10.7 km, magnitude 4.9. View data here.
(MT) Thursday, May 30, 2002, 3:22 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - Wednesday morning's quake was reported by local TV news as being an aftershock of this year's 331 quake. Another large earthquake off the Ilan coast (farther north than Wednesday's quake) rocked my chair just about half an hour ago. I finally pulled these details off the CWB website:

2:53 PM, 24.1 km ENE of Ilan, depth 91.1 km, magnitude 5.9. View data here.
(MT) Wednesday, May 29, 2002, 1:30 AM, Taichung, Taiwan - A large earthquake off the Hualien coast shook the entire island of Taiwan less than an hour ago and sent me running for the door. While TV news reported details of the quake just moments after it happened, it took me more than half an hour to get ahold of the info via the CWB website:

12:45 AM, 59.1 km east of Hualien, depth 5.7 km, magnitude 6.2. View data here.
(MT) Tuesday, May 28, 2002, 1:26 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - Southeastern Taiwan felt this quake which occurred in central Taitung County yesterday afternoon:

Monday, 4:55 PM, 24.7 km NNW of Taitung, depth 9.4 km, magnitude 4.7. View data here.
(MT) Sunday, May 26, 2002, 6:01 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - Another small quake near the border of Ilan and Hualien Counties was reported by the CWB early this morning:

6:42 AM, 40.4 km NNE of Hualien, depth 20.8 km, magnitude 3.9. View data here.
(MT) Thursday, May 23, 2002, 11:45 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - A small quake in Ilan was reported by the CWB tonight:

7:42 PM, 21.6 km SSE of Ilan, depth 3.1 km, magnitude 3.9. View data here.
(MT) Monday, May 20, 2002, 9:28 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - Three quakes -- one with a magnitude of 5 -- have hit Taiwan today. The first and smallest of these quakes was reported as being only a magnitude-3.6 quake. The strange thing about the magnitude-5 quake is that it was reported on both the English and Chinese pages of the CWB's website as well as by Chinese-language TV news to have been felt as a "6" over 33 kilometers away from the epicenter:

9:44 AM, 4.2 km NNW of Hualien, depth 10.8 km, magnitude 3.6. View data here.
5:49 PM, 33.1 km south of Ilan, depth 15.5 km, magnitude 5.0. View data in English here or in Chinesehere.
8:16 PM, 41.2 km north of Hualien, depth 21.8 km, magnitude 4.3. View data here.
(MT) Sunday, May 19, 2002, 10:00 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - Another quake hit Taiwan's east coast less than one hour ago:

9:24 PM, 34.3 km SSE of Ilan, depth 8.1 km, magnitude 4.2. View data here.
(MT) Sunday, May 19, 2002, 2:44 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - Early this morning the CWB reported another quake on the east coast:

4:54 AM, 31.4 km NNE of Hualien, depth 13.9 km, magnitude 4.2. View data here.
(MT) Saturday, May 18, 2002, 2:22 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - After one day with 12 reported quakes (and hundreds of unreported ones) and another day with no reports, we have 3 reports of seismic activity so far today:

9:10 AM, 31.2 km NNE of Hualien, depth 11.9 km, magnitude 4.5. View data here.
9:40 AM, 31.2 km NNE of Hualien, depth 11 km, magnitude 4.6. View data here.
12:52 PM, 29.7 km NNE of Hualien, depth 11.4 km, magnitude 4.9. View data here.
(MT) Thursday, May 16, 2002, 2:27 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - Two more quakes were reported by the CWB, bringing yesterday's total to 12:

Wednesday, 5:06 PM, 13.5 km SSE of Ilan, depth 6 km, magnitude 4.4. View data here.
Wednesday, 8:08 PM, 14.6 km SSE of Ilan, depth 7.9 km, magnitude 4.4. View data here.
(MT) Wednesday, May 15, 2002, 1:35 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - Six more aftershocks have occurred since my last report (just 1 hour and 19 minutes ago):

12:14 PM, 16 km SE of Ilan, depth 9.2 km, magnitude 4.2. View data here.
12:17 PM, 15.4 km ESE of Ilan, depth 20.4 km, magnitude 4.6. View data here.
12:22 PM, 13.2 km SE of Ilan, depth 5 km, magnitude 4.0. View data here.
12:30 PM, 15 km SE of Ilan, depth 9.9 km, magnitude 4.7. View data here.
12:42 PM, 15 km SSE of Ilan, depth 6.3 km, magnitude 4.5. View data here.
1:08 PM, 15.5 km SE of Ilan, depth 7.8 km, magnitude 4.5. View data here.
(MT) Wednesday, May 15, 2002, 12:16 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - Exactly half an hour ago, I was awakened by a large quake all the way on the other side of the island. While Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau says it was only felt as a magnitude-2 quake in Taichung City, I would be more likely to say that it was closer to a 4. TV news is still providing continuous coverage of the event, saying the quake lasted for 30 - 40 seconds. They're saying that it is an aftershock of the March 31, 2002 quake. Here are the details of today's first large quake and three of the smaller aftershocks as (partially) reported by the CWB:

11:46 AM, 18.6 km SSE of Ilan, depth 5 km, magnitude 6.2. View data here.
11:53 AM, 16.2 km SE of Ilan, depth 4 km, magnitude 4.7. View data here.
11:59 AM, 18.5 km SE of Ilan, depth 10.1 km, magnitude 4.9. View data here.
12:01 PM, 14.3 km SE of Ilan, depth 12.1 km, magnitude 4.3. View data here.
(MT) Monday, May 13, 2002, 5:19 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - Last night, Taiwan experienced its 70th earthquake of the year, as deemed worthy of being report by the Central Weather Bureau:

Sunday, 10:18 PM, 48.9 km SSE of Ilan, depth 8.3 km, magnitude 4.6. View data here.
(MT) Saturday, May 11, 2002, 3:13 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - A small quake last night with a magnitude less than 4 was the 69th quake this year to be reported by the CWB:

Friday, 8:52 PM, 35.7 km SE of Ilan, depth 11.3 km, magnitude 3.9. View data here.
(MT) Friday, May 10, 2002, 12:52 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - A quake struck this afternoon near the offshore island of Lanyu, the site of Taiwan's nuclear waste dump. The quake was felt as a magnitude 4 there. Here are the CWB stats:

12:17 PM, 39.3 km NW of Lanyu, depth 8.8 km, magnitude 5.4. View data here.
(MT) Monday, May 6, 2002, 9:55 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - Another quake hit onshore this afternoon:

12:40 PM, 25.7 km NNE of Hualien, depth 12 km, magnitude 4.3. View data here.
(MT) Monday, May 6, 2002, 1:38 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - Here's another quake which happened off the Ilan-Hualien coast early this morning:

3:01 AM, 50.3 km NE of Hualien, depth 30.5 km, magnitude 4.5. View data here.
(MT) Sunday, May 5, 2002, 3:31 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - This offshore quake occurred this afternoon further down the Hualien coast than many recent ones:

1:28 PM, 38.5 km SSE of Hualien, depth 26.4 km, magnitude 4.4. View data here.
(MT) Thursday, May 2, 2002, 2:16 AM, Taichung, Taiwan - This quake occurred last night off the coast of Ilan:

Wednesday, 8:16 PM, 55 km SSE of Ilan, depth 15 km, magnitude 4.4. View data here.
(MT) Monday, April 29, 2002, 1:31 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - A quake occurred this morning just off the Hualien coast:

10:02 AM, 38.3 km SSE of Ilan, depth 11.3 km, magnitude 4.6. View data here.
(MT) Monday, April 29, 2002, 3:47 AM, Taichung, Taiwan - A big quake way off the coast of Hualien was felt across northeastern Taiwan last night:

Sunday, 9:23 PM, 117.9 km east of Hualien, depth 47.7 km, magnitude 5.6. View data here.
(MT) Friday, April 26, 2002, 1:40 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - Another quake shook northeastern Taiwan this morning:

9:42 AM, 34.5 km NNE of Hualien, depth 11.9 km, magnitude 4.3. View data here.
(MT) Tuesday, April 23, 2002, 12:39 AM, Taichung, Taiwan - Another magnitude 5.1 quake happened before midnight off the coast of Ilan with seismographs as far away as Changhua showing readings:

Monday, 11:14 PM, 48.1 km SSE of Ilan, depth 9 km, magnitude 5.1. View data here.
(MT) Sunday, April 21, 2002, 1:48 AM, Taichung, Taiwan - A magnitude 5.6 quake occurred off the coast of Taitung yesterday afternoon and was felt across southern Taiwan:

Saturday, 4:47 PM, 46.8 km SE of Chengkung, depth 7 km, magnitude 5.6. View data here.
(MT) Friday, April 19, 2002, 10:34 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - Another quake occurred in northeastern Taiwan this afternoon:

3:19 PM, 31.8 km SSE of Ilan, depth 9 km, magnitude 4.6. View data here.
(MT) Thursday, April 18, 2002, 3:34 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - Two more quakes have occurred since my last update to this page -- one last night and one this morning:

Wednesday, 10:46 PM, 47.3 km SSE of Ilan, depth 14 km, magnitude 4.5. View data here.
Thursday, 9:00 AM, 36.3 km south of Hualien, depth 35.6 km, magnitude 4.5. View data here.
(MT) Wednesday, April 17, 2002, 4:57 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - Both my computer and my Internet connection have had problems since last Wednesday night, but I've finally gotten both things fixed. Here's a list -- in chronological order -- of the ten quakes that have occurred since that time:

Thursday, April 11, 12:10 AM, 40.8 km NNE of Hualien, depth 10.6 km, magnitude 4.3. View data here.
Thursday, April 11, 2:57 AM, 30.6 km north of Hualien, depth 13.6 km, magnitude 4.5. View data here.
Thursday, April 11, 3:26 AM, 25.7 km SE of Ilan, depth 18.4 km, magnitude 4.2. View data here.
Thursday, April 12, 9:13 AM, 46.1 km east of Tainan, depth 9.7 km, magnitude 4.4. View data here.
Thursday, April 12, 2:41 PM, 23.5 km SSE of Ilan, depth 7.8 km, magnitude 3.4. View data here.
Thursday, April 12, 9:02 PM, 33.8 km SSE of Ilan, depth 10.4 km, magnitude 4.4. View data here.
Monday, April 15, 12:08 AM, 46.4 km SSE of Ilan, depth 11.7 km, magnitude 4.7. View data here.
Monday, April 15, 1:44 AM, 34.8 km SSE of Ilan, depth 20.8 km, magnitude 4.7. View data here.
Tuesday, April 16, 2:46 AM, 28.2 km ENE of Ilan, depth 28.8 km, magnitude 4.5. View data here.
Tuesday, April 16, 11:42 PM, 22.5 km NNE of Hualien, depth 5 km, magnitude 4.1. View data here.
(MT) Wednesday, April 10, 2002, 3:24 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - This quake was felt in northeastern Taiwan early this afternoon:

12:56 PM, 69.5 km ENE of Hualien, depth 5 km, magnitude 4.7. View data here.
(MT) Monday, April 8, 2002, 2:40 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - Another quake -- larger than yesterday's and not nearly as deep -- shook northeastern Taiwan this morning:

7:20 AM, 41.5 km NNE of Hualien, depth 14.2 km, magnitude 5.1. View data here.
(MT) Sunday, April 7, 2002, 9:35 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - This large but deep earthquake occurred off the northeast coast of Taiwan this morning:

7:59 AM, 53.9 km ENE of Ilan, depth 108.3 km, magnitude 5.0. View data here.
(MT) Saturday, April 6, 2002, 2:34 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - No quakes were reported yesterday by the CWB, but two have already occurred near the northeastern coastline of Taiwan today:

5:54 AM, 48.1 km SSE of Ilan, depth 11.8 km, magnitude 4.7. View data here.
1:09 PM, 44.1 km NNE of Hualien, depth 17.1 km, magnitude 4.2. View data here.
(MT) Friday, April 5, 2002, 12:23 AM, Taichung, Taiwan - Since my last post, there have been 5 earthquakes reported by the CWB, bringing Thursday's total to 6 quakes. The first (of the 5 most recent) quakes) was near the border of Yunlin, Nantou, and Chiayi Counties, and the remaining 4 were almost right on the shoreline near the Ilan-Hualien County border:

Friday, 4:27 PM, 31 km NW of Yushan, depth 11.9 km, magnitude 4.0. View data here.
Friday, 7:35 PM, 41.9 km NNE of Hualien, depth 19 km, magnitude 4.3. View data here.
Friday, 9:05 PM, 42.2 km NNE of Hualien, depth 15.7 km, magnitude 4.9. View data here.
Friday, 9:19 PM, 41.2 km NNE of Hualien, depth 16.7 km, magnitude 4.2. View data here.
Friday, 9:29 PM, 41.8 km NNE of Hualien, depth 17.5 km, magnitude 4.2. View data here.
(MT) Thursday, April 4, 2002, 1:35 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - Another quake occurred early this morning off the coast of Hualien. This one was even larger than yesterday's quake:

2:06 AM, 47.7 km NNE of Hualien, depth 10.3 km, magnitude 5.4. View data here.
(MT) Wednesday, April 3, 2002, 3:36 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - Another quake with a magnitude larger than 5 occurred off the Hualien coast this afternoon near the site of Sunday's quake:

2:48 PM, 61.5 km ENE of Hualien, depth 10.3 km, magnitude 5.2. View data here.
(MT) Tuesday, April 2, 2002, 12:50 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - Despite the intensity of Sunday's quake, the aftershocks being reported by the CWB seem infrequent and rather mild. This one was reported just after midnight this morning:

12:36 AM, 34.8 km SSE of Ilan, depth 13.8 km, magnitude 4.8. View data here.
6:09 AM, 40.1 km SSE of Ilan, depth 18.1 km, magnitude 4.5. View data here.
(MT) Monday, April 1, 2002, 4:23 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - Two more aftershocks were reported early this morning by the CWB:

1:09 AM, 41.5 km SSE of Ilan, depth 11.1 km, magnitude 4.8. View data here.
6:09 AM, 40.1 km SSE of Ilan, depth 18.1 km, magnitude 4.5. View data here.
(MT) Monday, April 1, 2002, 12:42 AM, Taichung, Taiwan - TV news reports indicate that there have been close to 200 aftershocks from yesterday afternoon's earthquake, but the CWB has only seen fit to post information related to four of those:

Sunday, 4:02 PM, 40 km SSE of Ilan, depth 22.2 km, magnitude 4.9. View data here.
Sunday, 7:50 PM, 4.8 km ESE of Ilan, depth 15.2 km, magnitude 4.4. View data here.
Sunday, 7:55 PM, 25.9 km SSE of Ilan, depth 11.2 km, magnitude 4.0. View data here.
Sunday, 9:06 PM, 25.2 km SSE of Ilan, depth 14.6 km, magnitude 4.3. View data here.
Here are some links related to the 331 Quake:

Quake kills five as it rattles the nation
Taipei Times article (April 1, 2002)

Scientists warn of aftershocks
Taipei Times article (April 1, 2002)

An amazing series of photos of one of the cranes
falling from the top of the Taipei Tinancial Center
Taipei Times photo (published April 1, 2002)

AP photo of one of the cranes falling
Yahoo! (March 31, 2002)

Powerful quake hits Taiwan
CNN.com (March 31, 2002)

Powerful Quake Kills Four in Taiwan
Yahoo! News (March 31, 2002)

Full Coverage (including a link to AP video
and a photo slideshow)
Yahoo! News (updated as needed)

Earthquake Bulletin - Taiwan Region
US Geological Service - National Earthquake Information Center (March 31, 2002)

More links are contained within the paragraph below.
(MT) Sunday, March 31, 2002, 3:25 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - A magnitude 6.8 quake off the shore of Hualien about half an hour ago shook this side of the island seriously enough to send me running out the door. The inconsistent information provided by the Central Weather Bureau's Seismology Center says that Taichung felt the quake as either a 3 or 4 magnitude, but I know better that it was larger than that. My own apartment building swayed for more than a full minute, and in some of Taipei's newsrooms (where the CWB says the perceived magnitude was 5) lights swayed, shelves came crashing down, chairs moved around the floor, and things fell off of tables and shelves. Other footage shot in Taipei during the quake showed two large construction cranes falling off the top of the Jin Long Bank building (AKA the Taipei Tinancial Center) currently being built there. So far, the building is 52 stories high, but it is planned to eventually reach a height of 101 floors. (Later footage revealed that at least 2 cars -- which appeared to have been driving by at the time -- were crushed by the crane. Reports also indicate that the 2 crane operators were both killed, but that the drivers of those cars survived!) Another building in Taipei City is reported to have pancaked trapping 6 people in what used to be the first floor. A young boy was seriously injured in the quake by a falling rock in Taroko National Park. Here are the basic details of the quake according to the CWB:

2:53 PM, 64.1 km ENE of Hualien, depth 9.6 km, magnitude 6.8. View data here.
(MT) Wednesday, March 27, 2002, 9:37 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - A quake occurred shortly after midnight this morning near Ilan:

12:25 AM, 2.5 km WNW of Ilan, depth 49.2 km, magnitude 4.8. View data here.
(MT) Monday, March 25, 2002, 3:21 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - This quake occurred near Sun Moon Lake early yesterday morning:

Sunday, 2:53 AM, 40.5 km ESE of Taichung, depth 3.7 km, magnitude 4.3. View data here.
(MT) Wednesday, March 19, 2002, 5:01 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - A quake occurred nearly an hour ago in Hualien, but when I typed this, the CWB still didn't have the English info posted in its entirety. Here's what I was able to dig up:

4:04 PM, 21.3 km south of Hualien, depth 39.8 km, magnitude 4.6. View data here.
(MT) Thursday, March 14, 2002, 11:33 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - After more than a week with no reports, this quake occurred in Chiayi County this evening:

7:25 PM, 28.7 km ESE of Chiayi, depth 9.5 km, magnitude 4.8. View data here.
(MT) Wednesday, March 6, 2002, 1:49 AM, Taichung, Taiwan - In the early hours of yesterday morning, a quake struck just off the coast of Ilan:

5:16 AM, 30.4 km SE of Ilan, depth 68.4 km, magnitude 4.9. View data here.
(MT) Monday, March 4, 2002, 5:17 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - This quake which occurred on the opposite side of the island (in Hualien County) rocked my seat a few minutes ago, and it lasted for a good 15 - 20 seconds:

5:04 PM, 23.4 km SW of Hualien, depth 13.3 km, magnitude 4.9. View data here.
(MT) Monday, March 4, 2002, 11:08 AM, Taichung, Taiwan - A small quake was reported early this morning in Hualien County:

4:36 AM, 18 km WSW of Hualien, depth 19.1 km, magnitude 3.8. View data here.
(MT) Saturday, March 2, 2002, 7:57 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - Two more quakes hit Kaohsiung County this afternoon within 1 minute of each other:

4:48 PM, 46 km SSW of Yushan, depth 5 km, magnitude 4.6. View data here.
4:49 PM, 45.8 km SSW of Yushan, depth 5.9 km, magnitude 4.6. View data here.
(MT) Friday, March 1, 2002, 9:50 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - Four quakes hit southern Taiwan in a period of just over 2 hours this afternoon. I personally felt the fourth of these quakes, although the seismographs in Taichung don't appear to have registered a thing:

2:36 PM, 44.2 km SSW of Yushan, depth 7 km, magnitude 4.2. View data here.
3:38 PM, 45.5 km SSW of Yushan, depth 3 km, magnitude 4.9. View data here.
3:50 PM, 43.8 km SSW of Yushan, depth 6.1 km, magnitude 4.2. View data here.
4:47 PM, 44.3 km SSW of Yushan, depth 5.7 km, magnitude 4.8. View data here.
(MT) Wednesday, February 27, 2002, 12:06 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - A quake hit Hualien very early this morning:

Tuesday, 2:18 AM, 18.3 km NNW of Hualien, depth 24.1 km, magnitude 4.0. View data here.
(MT) Wednesday, February 20, 2002, 4:09 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - A small quake hit Chiayi County late last night:

Tuesday, 10:52 PM, 2.8 km west of Yushan, depth 9.4 km, magnitude 4.3. View data here.
(MT) Sunday, February 17, 2002, 9:22 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - I'm just back from my Lunar New Year vacation to Hualien where 3 rather sizeable quakes hit while I was on my way. The first of these quakes shook much of Taiwan, and the other two shook a pretty big area, but being on a train at the time, I was unaware of any of them until I turned on the TV news upon my arrival at the hotel. In fact, the news only mentioned the magnitude 6.2 quake. I talked to several locals in Hualien last Tuesday and Wednesday, but their impression of the quake(s) wasn't that strong. How strange! Here are the details:

Tuesday, Feb. 12, 11:27 AM, 23.5 km SSE of Hualien, depth 25.1 km, magnitude 6.2. View data here.
Tuesday, Feb. 12, 11:43 AM, 16 km SSW of Hualien, depth 21.7 km, magnitude 5.2. View data here.
Tuesday, Feb. 12, 12:00 PM, 23.1 km south of Hualien, depth 24.2 km, magnitude 5.2. View data here.
(MT) Tuesday, January 29, 2002, 11:07 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - This evening's China Evening Post (a local Chinese-language newspaper) reported an offshore earthquake that I couldn't find on the CWB's website:

10:24 AM, 26.1 km SE of Chengkung, depth 11.8 km, magnitude 5.1. No charts available from the CWB so far.
(MT) Saturday, January 19, 2002, 11:52 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - This quake occurred near Ilan yesterday:

Friday, 1:06 PM, 37.1 km south of Ilan, depth 9.3 km, magnitude 4.2. View data here.
(MT) Tuesday, January 15, 2002, 12:49 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - Yet another magnitude 5.0 quake has hit Taiwan:

10:58 AM, 26.3 km NSE of Ilan, depth 86.6 km, magnitude 5.0. View data here.
(MT) Tuesday, January 15, 2002, 3:27 AM, Taichung, Taiwan - When I went to the CWB website a few minutes ago, I only expected to find one quake, but I got two for the price of one. The second of these -- which audibly shook my night table and lasted a good 25 - 30 seconds -- was what got me on the web at this time of the morning. Its epicenter was within just a few kilometers of last Wednesday's magnitude 5.3 quake:

12:34 AM, 64.1 km ESE of Ilan, depth 26.5 km, magnitude 5.0. View data here.
2:10 AM, 26.3 km SE of Miaoli, depth 2.5 km, magnitude 4.8. View data here.
(MT) Wednesday, January 9, 2002, 1:27 AM, Taichung, Taiwan - This quake -- about 30 - 40 km north of where I live -- shook my apartment for almost a full minute about half an hour ago, moving plants and wall hangings in the process, but I was only able to access the data just moments ago:

1:00 AM, 23.2 km SSE of Miaoli, depth 5 km, magnitude 5.3. View data here.
(MT) Monday, January 7, 2002, 1:30 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - Another quake in southern Taiwan this morning:

10:45 AM, 34.7 km NW of Taitung, depth 2.5 km, magnitude 4.7. View data here.
(MT) Friday, January 4, 2002, 12:45 PM, Taichung, Taiwan - Taiwan's first reported quake of the year 2002 occurred early this morning:

5:31 AM, 17.1 km ENE of Chiayi, depth 13.4 km, magnitude 4.3. View data here.
In an effort to reduce the download time on this page, the reports from 2001 have been moved here earlier reports (dating all the way back to December 12, 1999!) have been moved here.
Earlier quake news: News from 11/8 - 12/11 News from 10/25 - 11/7 News from 10/18 - 10/24 News from 10/11 - 10/17 News from 10/4 - 10/10 News from 9/27 - 10/3 News from 9/22 - 9/26

Mondo Taiwan--The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly! Social criticism, serious and otherwise, from a big-nosed, blue-eyed devil who's lived in Taiwan for over 19% of his life.

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