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Why is Taiwan prone to earthquakes? What to know about the Ring of Fire.

A 7.4-magnitude earthquake killed nine and injured hundreds in Taiwan, which lies inside the Ring of Fire, a seismically active zone around the Pacific Ocean.

By Victoria Bisset | 2024-04-03

Nine people were killed and more than 900 injured in Taiwan after a powerful earthquake and strong aftershocks rocked the island Wednesday. The 7.4-magnitude earthquake was the strongest to hit the island in 25 years.

Taiwan is vulnerable to earthquakes because of its position in the world's most seismically active zone, known as the Ring of Fire. Here's what to know.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, Taiwan "lies in a region of complex tectonics near the intersection of three major tectonic plates -- the Philippine Sea plate to the east and southeast, the Eurasia plate to the north and west, and the Sunda plate to the southwest."

As a result of its location, moderate-to-large earthquakes in Taiwan are common, the USGS says.

Taiwan is in an area known as the Ring of Fire (or Pacific Ring of Fire), a horseshoe-shaped zone around the Pacific Ocean where most of the world's earthquakes take place.

The Ring of Fire is "the most seismically and volcanically active zone in the world," according to the USGS.

The 25,000-mile arc extends through New Zealand, Japan and off the west coast of mainland Asia, around down the west coast of the Americas. About 81 percent of the world's largest earthquakes, more than 80 percent of tsunamis and about 75 percent of all active volcanoes exist there.

The zone includes Chile, where a 9.5-magnitude earthquake in 1960 -- the most powerful in the 20th century -- killed about 1,655 people, according to the USGS. A 9.2-magnitude earthquake in Alaska four years later was the most powerful in U.S. history, killing 115 people.

In 2011, more than 18,000 people were killed after a 9.0-magnitude quake hit off the coast of Japan, causing a 23-foot tsunami that devastated the coast and damaged the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

In January 2022, the kingdom of Tonga in the Ring of Fire was the site of one of the most powerful volcanic eruptions ever recorded, with a study later finding that the underwater eruption was larger than any U.S. nuclear explosion.

(The Washington Post)

Taiwan's deadliest earthquake in recent history hit near the island's west coast in 1935, killing more than 3,200 people, according to the Central Weather Administration. The USGS says the Hsinchu Taichung earthquake had a magnitude of 7.1 and was one of the world's deadliest. More than 12,000 people were injured, and tens of thousands of homes destroyed.

Officials said Wednesday's quake was the strongest since 1999, when a 7.6-magnitude tremor struck central Taiwan, killing more than 2,400 people. More than 100,000 houses were damaged or destroyed in that earthquake, one of the most catastrophic of the island's history, according to Taiwan's Central Weather Administration.

A 6.4-magnitude earthquake in southern Taiwan brought down a 17-story building in the city of Tainan in 2016, killing at least 116 people. The epicenter was in Taiwan's central mountain range, and the quake hit Tainan hardest, cutting off water to many people at the time and ripping a chasm in the ground.

In recent years, local authorities have launched campaigns to make older buildings more earthquake resistant.

Following one tremor in 2018, the government announced reviews of more than 34,000 buildings, whose owners would be forced to complete improvements to make them safe.

In 2022, the Interior Ministry outlined changes to building codes, including reinforcements for buildings susceptible to earthquakes, the Taipei Times reported at the time.

Ellen Francis and Lily Kuo contributed to this report.


This article was downloaded by calibre from https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/04/03/taiwan-earthquake-ring-of-fire/


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