An extremely shallow earthquake with a magnitude of 5.3 and a depth of 23.5 kilometers occurred at 04:25:22 in the morning at 04:25:22 in Fengbin Township, Hualien County.

(Provided by the Central Weather Bureau)

[Reporter Chen Xinyu/Taipei Report] An extremely shallow earthquake with a magnitude of 5.3 and a depth of 23.5 kilometers occurred today (3rd) at 04:25:22 in the coastal area of ​​Fengbin Township, Hualien County. Feeling this, the Bureau of Meteorology even issued a "National Alert" cellular text message to warn people in the Hualien area.

Chen Guochang, director of the Earthquake Prediction Center of the Central Meteorological Administration, said that this is a separate sequence of earthquakes caused by the subduction zone of the plate, and has nothing to do with the 6.8 earthquake on the east Chishang scale of Taiwan 918.

Chen Guochang said that the cause of this series of earthquakes was that when the Philippine Sea plate and the Eurasian plate were squeezed, they occurred at the turning point, which was an earthquake in the subduction zone of the plate. Due to the geological fragmentation of the source location, the frequency and scale of aftershocks were not large, and the initial judgment scale was above 4. Aftershocks will not last more than two days.

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The earthquake report of the Meteorological Bureau pointed out that the maximum earthquake intensity was 3 in Taitung County, Nantou County, and Yunlin County; the maximum earthquake intensity in Chiayi County, Taichung City, Yilan County, Changhua County, Chiayi City, and Miaoli County was 2; Kaohsiung City, Tainan City, Pingtung County, Taoyuan City, Hsinchu County, Hsinchu City, and New Taipei City had a maximum magnitude of 1.

As for the Taitung Chishang 918 earthquake that caused disasters a few days ago, there have been as many as 194 earthquakes.

Including the 6.4 foreshock of September 17, the main shock of September 18, and the aftershocks as of 8:30 this morning, there have been 194 cumulative aftershocks. Chen Guochang said that the development of aftershocks has been predicted, and the aftershocks will continue for about a month. About 1 to 2 aftershocks occur every day. After about half a month, the aftershocks will become less and less, and the scale will be reduced to 1 every 2 days.

Chen Guochang said that it is estimated that the earthquake of magnitude 6.8 occurred at Chishang 918 in Taitung, and the aftershocks of magnitude 3 or more will continue for another half a month.

An extremely shallow earthquake with a magnitude of 5.3 and a depth of 23.5 kilometers occurred at 04:25:22 in the morning at 04:25:22 in Fengbin Township, Hualien County.

(Provided by the Central Meteorological Administration) (Photo by reporter Chen Xinyu)