TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck Tainan Saturday at 7:49 p.m. followed by an aftershock within one minute, the Central Weather Administration said.
The first quake struck 43.7 kilometers northeast of Tainan City Hall at a focal depth of 7.7 kilometers. The epicenter was located in Dongshan District.
The quake’s biggest intensity level reached level 4 in parts of Tainan, Kaohsiung, Chiayi City, Chiayi County, Yunlin, and Changhua. Taiwan uses an intensity scale of 1 to 7, which gauges the degree to which a quake is felt at a specific location.
The quake was followed one minute later by a magnitude 4.8 tremor at a focal depth of 6.8 km also in Dongshan, 42.6 km northeast of Tainan City Hall.
The quake followed several tremors over the past few days in the same region, with the most serious one striking Chiayi County on January 21. The magnitude 6.4 quake caused damage to buildings and roads in Chiayi and Tainan.