TAIPEI, Taiwan — A cluster of earthquakes struck the island republic of Taiwan early Tuesday, April 23, 2024, the strongest having a magnitude of 6.1, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
There were no reports of casualties in the quakes, although there were further damages to two multi-story buildings that had been evacuated following a magnitude 7.4 quake that hit the island earlier this month, killing 13 people and injuring over 1,000. That earthquake was centered along the coast of the rural and mountainous Hualien County.
It was the strongest earthquake in the past 25 years in Taiwan and was followed by hundreds of aftershocks. The quakes Tuesday’s are considered the latest of those.
According to the USGS, Tuesday’s quake of 6.1 magnitude had its epicenter 28 kilometers south of the city of Hualien, at a dept of 10.7 kilometers. The half-dozen other quakes ranged from magnitude 4.5 to magnitude six, all near Hualien. Taiwan’s own earthquake monitoring center put the magnitudes of the initial quake at 6.3. Such small discrepancies are common between monitoring stations. / AP