Three earthquakes shook Hualien in eastern Taiwan early Monday, with the strongest recorded at magnitude 5.1 on the Richter scale, but there were no reports of casualties or damage, according to the Central Weather Bureau (CWB). The magnitude 5.1 earthquake hit at 1:45 a.m., centered 7.5 kilometers southwest of the Hualien County Hall at a depth of 18.1 km, the CWB’s Seismology Center said. The quake caused strong tremors but they did not last long, the center said. The Hualien County Fire Department said it has not received any reports of damage. A second earthquake, magnitude 2.8, struck at 2:14 a.m., with the epicenter 9 km west of the county hall at a depth of 11.7 km, the Seismology Center said. It was followed by a magnitude 4.7 temblor at 3:43 a.m., centered 8.5 km southwest of the county hall at a depth of 16.1 km. Taiwan sits in an earthquake-prone area. More than 30 earthquakes rocked the island.
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Strongest-ever earthquake hits Quang Nam, Vietnam
(Oct 23, 2012) A series of tremors measuring 4.6 on the Richter scale broke out in the district at 9:42 pm Monday and lasted for about three seconds, said Le Van Tuan, chief of the district People’s Committee’s Secretariat. Thousands of locals rushed out of their houses in panic after they heard loud blasts and felt the ground shaking, houses’ walls cracking, and things inside the houses falling, Tuan said. “Many items on a table in my house fell down to the floor and my children cried and screamed when hearing explosions that sounded like the sounds of bombings,” he said. This quake could be felt by people living in districts nearby such as Nam Tra My, Tien Phuoc, Phuoc Son and Nong Son, he added. Vu Duc Toan, deputy head of the Hydropower Management Board No. 3, said that the earthquake accelerator installed at the hydropower plant area indicated a ground acceleration of 98 cm/s2. This data has been reported to the Global Physics Institute. The quake’s statistics are being handled by the Institute and the Earthquake Information and Tsunami Warning Center, Toan said.