Taiwan's meteorological department for continuous earthquakes of magnitude 5 and above: does not rule out the possibility of a major earthquake

　　China News Agency, Taipei, February 9. Two earthquakes with a magnitude of 5.0 on the Richter scale occurred one after another in the eastern waters of Taiwan in the early hours of the 9th. Due to the long distance, no destructive disaster or casualties were caused.

Taiwan Meteorological Department believes that in addition to the normal energy release, it does not rule out the possibility of a major earthquake.

　　According to the Central News Agency, United News Network, China Times News Network and other Taiwan media reports, an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.5 on the Richter scale occurred at 0:56 on the 9th, with a focal depth of 69.3 kilometers. The epicenter was located 73.0 kilometers southeast of the Yilan County Government; the Richter scale occurred two minutes later. The magnitude 5.7 earthquake has a focal depth of 23.9 kilometers. The epicenter is located 47.9 kilometers southeast of the Yilan County Government. Both earthquakes occurred in the waters of eastern Taiwan.

　　The person in charge of the "Earthquake Observation and Reporting Center" of the Taiwan Meteorological Department said that since this year, eastern Taiwan has more frequent earthquakes than before. In the past year, there have been 18 earthquakes above 5.0 on the Richter scale. There have been 8 earthquakes since January this year.

Among them, the highest on the Richter scale was 6.1 on February 7.

　　The person in charge mentioned that the special feature of the two earthquakes is that the depth of the second earthquake is relatively shallow, and there was almost no such shallow earthquake in the same location before.

It is currently speculated that when the subduction zone is active, the geological conditions of the area are more complicated, causing fragmentation and distortion.

　　He introduced that there are currently two theories, one is that frequent release of energy is not easy to cause a major earthquake; the other is the opposite, and it may be that a larger earthquake is brewing.

In the history of earthquakes with a Richter scale of 8.5 or above, more than half of them will have obvious foreshocks. Both of these may be observed continuously.

(Finish)