Large Earthquake shakes Taiwan
Pastor Dale Morgan
Large Earthquake shakes Taiwan*
From correspondents in Taipei, Taiwan
Reuters
October 04, 2009 06:46am
AN earthquake exceeding magnitude 6.3 hit eastern Taiwan early this
morning but the island's officials said no immediate reports of deaths
or damage had been reported so far.
Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau put the magnitude at 6.3 on the Richter
scale and the U.S. Geological Survey said the size of the tremor was
6.1, after first gauging it at 6.2.
USGS said the quake, which struck at 1:36 a.m.today (local time) was
centered about 29 km south of Hualien, which is located on the east
coast of Taiwan. It was strong enough to wake people in the capital Taipei.
"We haven't had any immediate reports of any casualties or damage so
far," said an official from Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau.
Earthquakes occur frequently in Taiwan, which lies on a seismically
active stretch of the Pacific basin. Elsewhere within the past week,
several thousand people are feared to have died in two powerful quakes
in Indonesia, and tsunamis triggered by undersea quakes killed nearly
200 people in Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga.