The 2019 Hualien earthquake () struck

Hualien County Hualien County (Mandarin Wade–Giles: Hua¹-lien² Hsien⁴; Pīnyīn: ''Huālián Xiàn''; Hokkien POJ: ''Hoa-lian-koān'' or ''Hoa-liân-koān''; Hakka PFS: ''Fâ-lièn-yen''; Amis: ''Kalingko'') is a county on the east coast of Taiwan. It ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

with a

moment magnitude The moment magnitude scale (MMS; denoted explicitly with or Mw, and generally implied with use of a single M for magnitude) is a measure of an earthquake's magnitude ("size" or strength) based on its seismic moment. It was defined in a 1979 pape ...

of 6.1 on 18 April at 13:01 local time (05:01 UTC).

Geography

A 6.1 earthquake hit Taiwan which caused damage to weak buildings and roads in

Taipei Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the n ...

and other districts. Two people were injured while hiking and 15 other people were injured in Taipei. This was a moment magnitude earthquake 9 kilometres off of Hualien County, Taiwan. One of the two injured hikers which is identified as from

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

later died in local hospital on 28 April as the only fatality in the earthquake, which is the worst since 2018.

Aftermath

Several buildings were damaged after the earthquake with many buildings having to be evacuated. Outside walls of buildings damaged and furniture knocked off the wall was not unprecedented. Train services on Taipei's subway were suspended as were the airport subway to

Taoyuan International Airport Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport is an international airport serving Taipei and northern Taiwan. Located about west of Taipei in Dayuan District, Taoyuan, the airport is Taiwan's largest. It was also the busiest airport in Taiwan before t ...

and most other metro and train systems in various parts of Taiwan, especially those around eastern and northern Taiwan, for safety inspections. A building was also leaning on its side in Hualien City.

References

{{Earthquakes in Taiwan 2019 earthquakes 2019 in Taiwan April 2019 events in Asia Hualien County Earthquakes in Taiwan

Geography

Aftermath

See also

References