One injured, no fatalities reported in the 6.5 magnitude earthquake that hit Taiwan on Sunday.
A 6.5 magnitude earthquake struck the northeastern country of Taiwan on Sunday, with residents going on social media to report violent shaking in the country’s capital Taipei just past 1 pm EST, but there were no immediate reports of excessive damage in the disaster-hit areas.Â
According to the statement by the Taiwan weather bureau, the earthquake was in the depth of 66.8 km (41.5 miles), with a magnitude of 6.5.
The tremors from the quake were reportedly felt across the northern, eastern and western parts of Taiwan, with the epicentre in Yilan County,Foreign news agencies also reported a magnitude 6.2 quake in the said regions, citing the European Mediterranean Seismological Center.
Later during the day, Taipei’s MRT metro system was shut down for over an hour as a precautionary measure.
The authorities restarted the system after the railway authorities carried out track inspections. The precaution was taken due to the 5.4 magnitude aftershock following the main quake.
Authorities said no widespread damage is expected as the quake was shallow, although the island’s emergency operations centre did report one injury. A woman was reported to have been hit by falling rocks.
This is not the first time Taiwan has had an earthquake. Back in 2016, the island nation was hit by a 7.3 magnitude quake in the southern part of Taiwan, which resulted in the death of more than 100 people, while a 7.3 magnitude quake back in 1999 killed more than 2,000 people.
 Earthquake in Taiwan back in 2018
Taiwan has for many years been prone to earthquakes, the reason being the position of the country; geologists have identified 42 active faults on the island, which lies near the junction of two tectonic plates.
Most earthquakes are said to occur due to the convergence of the Philippine Sea Plate and the Eurasian Plate to the east of the island.
In order to improve the efficiency of disaster reduction, the government of Taiwan has taken a number of initiatives in the development of disaster reduction technology since 1982.
Taiwan has developed an integrated GIS-based software, called “Haz-Taiwan”, to estimate ground motion intensity, damage probabilities, induced socio-economic losses and so on.
The software Haz-Taiwan provides useful data for seismic disaster mitigation plans and has since been upgraded and renamed Taiwan Earthquake Estimation System (TELES).
Efforts have been made to transfer this technology to governmental units responsible for the development of disaster reduction plans. It is expected that TELES will be widely employed in Taiwan.
Also, following the repercussions of the earthquake back in 1999, the Taiwanese government promulgated the Disaster Prevention & Response Act (DPRA) in 2000.
The DPRA is the first disaster management related fundamental law in Taiwan, which integrates the management mechanisms for natural and technological disasters and covers all four phases of the disaster management cycle: mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery.
