This earthquake occurred near the center of Taiwan, about 160 kilometers (100
miles) SSW of the capital city of Taipei, and at 01:47 am local time. It was a
shallow (approximately 5 kilometers) thrust earthquake, caused by the collision
between the Philippine Sea and Eurasian plates.
Most of Taiwan's seismicity is at this island's eastern side. Thus the inland
location of the September 20 19999 earthquake, shown by the red dot in the
figure, is unusual. Because of this earthquake's location, there was minimal
tsunami risk, but high risk to regional population centers.
Figure caption. Earthquakes with magnitude greater than or
equal to 5.0, occurring between 1964 and 1995. Most large earthquakes are
located east of Taiwan and have caused minimal damage. This situation is
unlike the September 20 1999 earthquake and aftershocks, which are located in
the central part of the island. (Reference: Kao, H., Shen, S. and Ma, K.-F.,
1998, Transition from oblique subduction to collision: Earthquakes in the
southernmost Ryukyu arc-Taiwan region, J. Geophysical Research 103,
7211-7229.)
The tectonic environment near Taiwan is unusually complicated. Tectonically,
most of Taiwan is a COLLISION ZONE between the Philippine Sea and Eurasian
plates. This collision zone is bridged at the north by northwards subduction of
the Philippine Sea plate beneath the Ryuku arc and, at the south, an eastwards
thrusting at the Manila trench. The northern transition from plate collision to
subduction is near the coastal city of Hualien, located at about 24 degrees
north, whereas the southern transition is 30-50 kilometers south of Taiwan.
The following list shows magnitude 7.0 and greater earthquakes that are
located in the zone 22.0-25.0 degrees North by 120.0-122.5 degrees East. This
zone closely bounds Taiwan. Only a few of these earthquakes were damaging
because most events were east of the island. The columns show
year-month-day-origin time-latitude-longitude-focal depth-magnitude. Focal
depths for most earthquakes prior to 1952 are unknown.
Year |
Month |
Day |
Time |
Latitude |
Longitude |
Depth (km) |
Magnitude |
1920 |
06 |
05 |
04:21 |
23.50 |
122.00 |
10 |
8.30 Ms |
1922 |
09 |
01 |
19:16 |
24.50 |
122.00 |
60 |
7.60 Ms |
1957 |
02 |
23 |
20:26 |
23.00 |
122.00 |
69 |
7.10 Ms |
1963 |
02 |
13 |
08:50 |
24.50 |
122.10 |
47 |
7.30 Ms |
1967 |
10 |
25 |
00:59 |
24.50 |
122.20 |
63 |
7.00 Ms |
1972 |
01 |
04 |
03:16 |
22.50 |
122.10 |
6 |
7.60 Ms |
1972 |
01 |
25 |
03:41 |
23.10 |
122.10 |
34 |
7.70 Ms |
1972 |
04 |
24 |
09:57 |
23.60 |
121.60 |
33 |
7.20 Ms |
1978 |
07 |
23 |
14:42 |
22.28 |
121.51 |
17 |
7.40 Ms |
1978 |
12 |
23 |
11:23 |
23.25 |
122.07 |
33 |
7.20 UKPAS |
1986 |
11 |
14 |
21:20 |
23.90 |
121.57 |
33 |
7.80 Ms GS |
1999 |
09 |
20 |
17:47 |
23.78 |
121.09 |
5 |
7.6 Mw GS |
|
The preceding summary was prepared by seismologists at the U. S. Geological
Survey, National Earthquake Information Center, Golden, Colorado.
URL:
http://zeus.wdcb.ru/wdcb/sep/strong/19990920/stect.html
Last revision January 26, 2001