2006 Hengchun earthquakes
 | This article may be affected by a current event. Information in this article may change rapidly as the event progresses. Initial news reports may be unreliable. The last updates to this article may not reflect the most current information. |
 | |
| UTC time | ?? |
|---|---|
| Magnitude | 7.1 Mw |
| Areas affected | Physical: Taiwan Communications: Various countries in East and Southeast Asia |
| Casualties | 2 dead; 42 injured |
The 2006 Hengchun earthquake occurred on December 26 2006 at 12:25 UTC (20:25 local time), with an epicenter off the southwest coast of Taiwan, Republic of China approximately 22.8 km west southwest of Hengchun, Pingtung County (with an exact epicenter 21.9 km deep in the Luzon Strait (21.89°N, 120.56°E), which connects the South China Sea with the Philippine Sea.
There are conflicting reports of the magnitude of the quake, with the Taiwan Central Weather Bureau marking it at 6.7, the United States Geological Survey estimating it at 7.1, and the Japan Meteorological Agency putting the magnitude at 7.2. Taiwan's Central News Agency is reporting that it is the strongest earthquake to hit Hengchun in one hundred years. [1] Coincidentally, the earthquake occurred on the second anniversary of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake that devastated the coastal communities across Southeast and South Asia.
Damage
News agencies aired reports in southern Taiwan of collapsed houses, building fires, hotel guests being trapped in elevators, and telephone outages due to severed lines. Two people were reported killed and 42 injured. The earthquake was felt all over Taiwan, including the capital city of Taipei, which is 450 kilometers north of Hengchun. [2]
Power was knocked out to a reported 3,000 homes, but service was restored within a few hours. As of the following morning, cleanup was already underway. [3]
Fifteen historical buildings, including a Grade 2 historical site, have been damaged in the historic center of Hengchun. [4]
There were no reports of major damage in southern China or Hong Kong, although the quake could be felt there. The earthquake could be felt as far as one thousand kilometers away.
Aftershocks
Aftershocks greater than 5 Richter magnitude scale (or more correctly local magnitude ML scale) are listed in the table below:
Template:Entête tableau charte ! # ! Time ! Location ! Magnitude ! Depth |----- | 1 | December 26, 2006 20:34 UTC+8 | 22.4°N, 120.51°E, 11.6 km northwestern of Fangliao | 6.4 ML | 21.3 km [5] |-Template:Grey row | 2 | December 26, 2006 20:40 UTC+8 | 21.94°N, 120.4E, 35.4 km western of Hengchun | 5.2 ML | 25.0 km [6] |----- | 3 | December 26, 2006 22:53 UTC+8 | 21.86°N, 120.39°E, 39.8 km southwestern of Hengchun | 5.2 ML | 25.0 km [7] |-Template:Grey row | 4 | December 26, 2006 23:41 UTC+8 | 22.09°N, 120.22°E, 31.6 km southwestern of Little Liuchiu Island | 5.5 ML | 23.0 km [8] |----- | 5 | December 27 2006 01:35 UTC+8 | 21.78°N, 120.31°E, 50.4 km southwestern of Hengchun | 5.8 ML | 32.6 km [9] |-Template:Grey row | 6 | December 27, 2006 10:30 UTC+8 | 22.03°N, 120.33°E, 35.1 km southern of Little Liuchiu Island | 5.9 ML | 28.0 km [10] |----- | 7 | December 28 2006 17:38 UTC+8 | 21.96°N, 120.56°E, 54.5 km southwestern of Hengchun | 5.3 ML | 54.5 km [11] |}
In addition, three others were reported that were of at least 4.7 intensity according to the Central Weather Bureau.
Tsunami warning
Early reports indicated that the earthquake triggered a 1 meter tsunami, which was detected heading for the east coast of the Philippines, with Basco in its likely path. [12] The warnings were, however, discontinued shortly before 1500 UTC.
This quake took place on the second anniversary of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, which devastated Southeast and South Asia. That 2004 earthquake registered as a magnitude 9.1, and caused a tsunami with waves reaching as high as 10 meters.
Disruption in communications
The earthquake brought about the most catastrophic disruption in Internet services in Asia, affecting many Asian countries. Financial transactions, particularly in the foreign exchange market were seriously affected too. The aforementioned disruption was caused by damage to several submarine communications cables.[13]
China Telecom reported that several international submarine communications cables had been broken, including:
- CUCN and SMW3, which was damaged at December 26 2006 20:25 UTC+8 approximately 9.7 km away from landing point in Fangshan, Pingtung County, Taiwan;
- APCN 2 S3, which was damaged at December 27 2006 02:00 UTC+8 approximately 2100 km away from landing point in Chongming, Shanghai, China;
- APCN 2 S7, which was damaged at December 27 2006 00:06 UTC+8 approximately 904 km away from landing point in Tanshui, Taipei County, Taiwan;
- FLAG Europe Asia, the segment between Hong Kong and Shanghai was broken at December 27 2006 04:56 UTC+8;
- FLAG North Asia Loop, the segment between Hong Kong and Pusan was broken at December 26 2006 20:43 UTC+8,
severely damaging the communications within the Asia-Pacific region and with the United States and Europe.[14][15]
Taiwan
Chunghwa Telecom stated that an undersea cable off the southern coast had been damaged, interrupting communications (including IDD, telephone services and internet services) of Taiwan with China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and the United States.
Hong Kong SAR
Starting from the dawn of December 27, connection between foreign web sites/servers and HKSAR internet users kept failing. Wikipedia, search engines and portals like Google, Yahoo!, MSN have been largely unavailable. Access to Chinese Wikipedia was cut by the earthquake too, as the servers are located in South Korea.[16]
Other areas
Korea Telecom[17], Malaysia's Telekom Malaysia [18] and Jaring [19], as well as Singapore's StarHub and SingTel [20] and Brunei's Telbru have also reported disruption to most Internet services. In Singapore, search engines and portals like Google, Yahoo!, MSN and most websites have been virtually unreachable.
See also
- List of earthquakes
- 1999 Taiwanese 921 earthquake (Chi-Chi earthquake)
- 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake
- Submarine communications cable
References
- ^ 2 KILLED IN STRONGEST EARTHQUAKE IN HENGCHUN IN 100 YEARS
- ^ Clean up work begins after Taiwan quake
- ^ Taiwan starts earthquake clean-up
- ^ 恆春古城 城倒15座
- ^ Earthquake Report #95107, Central Weather Bureau of Taiwan, 2006-12-26
- ^ Earthquake Report #95108, Central Weather Bureau of Taiwan, 2006-12-26
- ^ Minor Earthquake Report, Central Weather Bureau of Taiwan, 2006-12-26
- ^ Earthquake Report #95109, Central Weather Bureau of Taiwan, 2006-12-26
- ^ Minor Earthquake Report, Central Weather Bureau of Taiwan, 2006-12-27
- ^ Earthquake Report #95110, Central Weather Bureau of Taiwan, 2006-12-27
- ^ Minor Earthquake Report, Central Wather Bureau of Taiwan, 2006-12-28
- ^ Taiwan starts earthquake clean-up, CNN, December 26 2006. Retrieved on December 27 2006
- ^ Quakes disrupt Asia communications
- ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6211451.stm
- ^ http://www.mpinews.com/htm/INews/20061227/gb31210a.htm
- ^ 地震毀電纜影響國際通訊
- ^ Asia communications hit by quake
- ^ Taiwan earthquake disrupts TM's Internet service
- ^ Quake shakes up the Net
- ^ Earthquake in Taiwan results in slow internet service in Singapore
External links
- US Geological Survey earthquake report
- Taiwan Central Weather Bureau earthquake report
- Taiwan Central Weather Bureau The CWB maintains an up-to-date record of earthquakes and their aftershocks in Chinese.
- BBC NEWS article
- CNN article
- International Herald Tribune breaking news article
- Reuters article