<Anchor>



There were many people who felt the shaking not only in Ganghwa Island, but also in Seoul, Gyeonggi, and the metropolitan area.

In particular, residents of Ganghwa Island, which is close to North Korea, could not hide their anxiety, saying that they thought the missile had fallen.



Reporter Yeo Hyeon-gyo will tell you about the confusing situation at dawn.



<Reporter> In



Yangdo-myeon, Ganghwa-gun, which is about 40 km away from the epicenter, residents are still shocked.



[Cho Eun-hye/Ganghwa-gun, Incheon City: I was surprised.

It was just a 'bang' sound, like a thunderclap.

I was surprised to hear what this means.]



Here in Ganghwa-gun, residents heard a thump or felt vibrations that woke them up while sleeping.



Residents who thought there was a car accident outside their home.



[Song Myeong-suk/Ganghwa-gun, Incheon: I woke up and felt a little strange.

But the house is just moving.

We are by the side of the road.

So who hit the car...

.]



Vibration of magnitude 4, which triggered the shaking of dishes and windows, was transmitted intact, and dishes in the cupboard actually fell and broke.



[Residents of Ganghwa-gun: I woke up because something was shaking like this, but when I went out after hearing a clang, the plate was broken.] As it



is a border area close to North Korea, I was even more anxious until I checked the disaster text message.



[Moon Geum-soon/Ganghwa-gun, Incheon: Did the missile shoot because it kept shooting missiles from the north?]



Tremors were also detected in Seoul and other parts of Gyeonggi Province, where the instrument seismic intensity was lower than that of Ganghwa Island.



During an Internet personal broadcast, a disaster text message suddenly rings,



[Wait, wait.]



I can feel the vibration from the water bottle on my desk.



Today (9th), there were 180 earthquake-related reports counted until 7:00 pm.



(Video coverage: Shin Dong-hwan, Video editing: Choi Eun-jin)



<Anchor>



Then, let's find out more about this with reporter Seo Dong-gyun, who is in charge of meteorological science. 



Q. Isn't it quite rare that an earthquake occurred in the West Sea?



[Reporter Seo Dong-gyun: If you look at the epicenter of this earthquake, it occurred in the sea 25km west of Ganghwa-gun.

In fact, this area is still a place where earthquakes have occurred.

However, in Korea, it is a little closer to the Eurasian plate, so the frequency of earthquakes is a little bit more frequent, and there is only relatively less interest than the Yeongnam region, which is well known to us for the Gyeongju and Pohang earthquakes.

In the case of this map, it is a map that shows the distribution of epicenters of magnitude 4.0 or higher from 1978 to the year before last.

You should consider that there is no safety zone for earthquakes in Korea, the Korean Peninsula, from the inland and sea to Jeju Island.]



Q. When was the most recent earthquake in the metropolitan area?



[Reporter Seo Dong-gyun: It was January 2019.

The same goes for this.

A very strong earthquake with a magnitude of 3.7 occurred in the western part of Baengnyeong Island in Incheon.

As such, since earthquakes continue to be frequent in the metropolitan area, and earthquakes of magnitude 3.5 or higher have already occurred twice, this is why it cannot be concluded that the frequency of earthquakes in the metropolitan area is lower than in other regions.]



Q. The cause of this earthquake silver?



[Reporter Seo Dong-gyun: First of all, earthquakes occur on this fault caused by the displacement of the fault between the two tectonic plates.

As you saw on the earthquake map of the Korean Peninsula earlier, I think this fault should exist everywhere in Korea.

The Korean government has been working very hard to draw this fault map since 2017.

It seems that it will take quite a bit of time to figure out even the seafloor fault, as this earthquake occurred.]



Q. Is there a possibility that an earthquake will occur inland in the metropolitan area?



[Reporter Seo Dong-gyun: As I mentioned earlier, there is a possibility that an earthquake may occur in the metropolitan area.

Unfortunately, earthquakes, like weather, are natural phenomena that cannot be predicted in the short term.

So, didn't you receive a disaster message from the Korea Meteorological Administration this time when an earthquake occurred?

As such, it is necessary for experts to give quick notice and for each individual entity to take appropriate action.]



(CG: Jegalchan)



▶ A 3.7 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Ganghwa...

Possibility of aftershocks for the time being