Authorities in Taiwan announced that at least seven people died in Wednesday’s earthquake in Hualien County, a mountainous region where the epicenter was located. At the same time, more than 700 people were injured.
Earthquakes in Taiwan, an island located in an active seismic zone, are frequent. The American newspaper The New York Times chronicled some of the strongest earthquakes in Taiwan’s modern history.
Taichung earthquake, 1935
Taiwan’s deadliest earthquake registered a magnitude of 7.1 and struck near the island’s west coast in April 1935, killing more than 3,200 people, according to the Central Meteorological Administration.
More than 12,000 other people were injured and more than 50,000 homes were destroyed or damaged.
The Tainan earthquake, 1941
It occurred in the southwestern city of Taiwan in December 1941, with a magnitude of 7.3 degrees. The earthquake caused several hundred deaths, according to the United States Geological Survey.
Chi-Chi earthquake, 1999
It is the earthquake that local authorities have referred to as the strongest in the last 25 years.
With a magnitude of 7.6, the earthquake struck the city of Chi-Chi in central Taiwan on September 21, 1999 at around 2:00 a.m. local time. The quake was the second deadliest in the island’s history, according to the USGS and the Central Weather Administration.
Its force toppled buildings as far away as Taipei, about 145 kilometers to the north.
Nearly 2,500 people died in the earthquake and more than 10,000 were injured. Also, more than 100,000 houses were destroyed or damaged.
The Chi-Chi earthquake of 1999 was particularly deadly due to several human-made faults. A post-quake analysis found that many buildings collapsed due to structural problems, such as poorly designed load-bearing lower levels, said Lin Thung-hong, a sociologist at the Academia Sinica, the country’s leading research institution. Taiwan, quoted by Voice of America News.
Tainan earthquake, 2016
The 6.4-magnitude earthquake on February 6, 2016 caused the collapse of a 17-story apartment complex in Tainan, Yujing District, southwestern Taiwan, killing at least 114 people.
The USGS later said that 90 earthquakes of the same magnitude or greater had occurred within 250 kilometers of that quake’s location in the past 100 years.
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