Tsunami warning – Earthquake shakes Taiwan

Tsunami warning

Strong earthquake hits Taiwan and causes Japan to issue tsunami warning. Tremor reaches 7.5 on the Richter scale.

Per Waves Editorial

04/03/2024

A 7.5 magnitude earthquake hit a region near Taiwan on Tuesday night (2) (Brasília time), and caused Japan to issue a tsunami warning for islands in the regions of Okinawa and Miyako-jima. .

What happened

The earthquake was recorded by the Japanese meteorological agency at 8:58 am local time. The region on the island of Yonaguni was the one that felt the intensity of the earthquake the most.

The earthquake was the strongest to hit Taiwan in 25 years. The statement was made by Wu Chien-fu, director of the Taiwanese Seismological Center. He referred to the 7.6 magnitude earthquake in September 1999 that killed 2,400 people.

Tsunami warning with waves of up to three meters. Authorities in Taiwan and Japan have issued tsunami warnings for their coastal regions, predicting waves of up to three meters. The USGS (United States Geological Survey) indicated the magnitude was 7.4.

The Philippine seismology agency also issued a tsunami warning for coastal areas facing the Pacific Ocean. The warning says that strong waves are expected. Residents of coastal areas in several provinces were advised to immediately evacuate to higher regions. Recommendation was made to the population of 23 coastal provinces.

Television footage showed buildings collapsing in the city of Hualien on Taiwan’s east coast. There are reports of people trapped inside the buildings. Power cuts and internet outages were reported in parts of Taiwan following the earthquake. Around 87,000 people are without power, according to the Reuters news agency.

Part of a highway in Taiwan collapsed. At least nine landslides on the Suhua highway along the east coast of Hualien were recorded. The information is from the Taiwan Central News Agency. The highway is currently closed.

Other earthquakes hit the region near Taiwan. At 9:11 pm, Brasília time, the Japanese agency records an earthquake of magnitude 6.6; at 9:35 pm another occurrence of 6.3; and at 9:46 pm a smaller alert was issued in Chiba Prefecture, Japan, with a magnitude of 3.3.

“Evacuate!” said a sign on Japanese national television NHK. “A tsunami is coming, please evacuate immediately”, said a presenter from that station. “Don’t stop, don’t come back.” The broadcaster also said that waves of 30 centimeters were recorded on the Japanese island of Yonaguni.

According to the USGS, the earthquake had its epicenter 18 km south of the Taiwanese city of Hualien, with a depth of 34.8 km.

Reports of tremors in Hong Kong. Hong Kong’s weather forecasting agency said it had received more than a hundred reports of tremors following the earthquake in Taiwan.

Source UOL