Rescuers in the island of Taiwan retrieve a survivor from the rubble of a collapsed convenience store after a magnitude 6.9 earthquake hit Hualien county in eastern Taiwan, on September 18, 2022. The earthquake has caused at least one death, local media reported. Photo: VCG

 
Several earthquakes have hit the island of Taiwan since Saturday night. One of them, a 6.9-magnitude earthquake in Hualien County, was the biggest earthquake in China in 2022. Experts say the world is now in "shock mode," and China needs to be alert to the risk of earthquakes in the coming months.

Since Saturday night's earthquake in Taitung county and Sunday afternoon's quake in Hualien County, 11 more aftershocks occurred overnight starting at 12 am on Monday, according to Taiwan media outlet China Times. Another 5.7-magnitude earthquake struck Hualien county at 10:07 am on Monday.

China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC) showed that the two earthquakes were part of activity in the same area, with the two epicenters about 14 kilometers apart.

According to local media reports, the earthquake has caused one death and 146 injuries. A total of 71 school buildings have been damaged in Taiwan, with 15 locations experiencing major damage. School closures were announced in many places on Monday. The island's authorities also warned people to be on the lookout for aftershocks that could still occur in the next few days.

The earthquake that struck Hualien County on Sunday afternoon was measured at magnitude-6.9 by the CENC, making it the strongest earthquake to hit China in 2022. Outside the island of Taiwan, residents in many other parts of China also reported feeling relatively strong tremors, including in East China's Fujian, Zhejiang and Shanghai, as well as the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR).

"It's normal for earthquakes to happen in Taiwan at this time of year, as Taiwan is located in an earthquake zone," Nina Lin, a resident of Taiwan's Hsinchu county, told the Global Times on Monday.

Lin said that compared to earthquakes in previous years, she felt that the tremors were not very severe, although there were more aftershocks.

"We felt the quake seemed to be felt more strongly than in previous years at this time, and the aftershocks were more frequent," Arthur Wang, another Taiwan resident, told the Global Times on Monday. "Some areas in Taiwan were more severely affected."

Earthquakes are more common in August and September in Taiwan, Gao Jianguo, an expert from the China Association for Disaster Prevention, also told the Global Times. "The risk of aftershocks requires additional attention, especially since this area has also been experiencing typhoons recently."

The earthquake doesn't just mark a seismically active period for Taiwan, but in fact the whole world has already begun a "shock mode," Gao said.

"Currently, the number of earthquakes reported in China in 2022 is still much smaller than the average number reported per year," Gao told the Global Times.

He said that means the risk of China experiencing an earthquake in the remaining months of the year is relatively high.

"Not only the island of Taiwan, but also the Chinese mainland needs to pay extra attention to the potential for larger earthquakes to occur," Gao said.

Gao noted that because Taiwan is located in a seismic zone, more attention is paid to earthquake-resistant infrastructure. Taitung is close to the epicenter of the major earthquake in 1999, and people's awareness of earthquake preparedness is relatively strong, which may be the reason why the quake did not cause serious casualties in Taiwan.

According to the China Earthquake Administration, China has reported a total of 533 earthquakes of magnitude 3.0 or higher this year, but there have not been any earthquakes of magnitude 7.0 or higher. The highest magnitude reported so far was 6.9, for a quake which occurred in Haibei Prefecture, Northwest China's Qinghai Province on Jan. 8 and the one in Hualien County on Sunday.

Taiwan is located in the western part of the Pacific Rim seismic zone, which is the junction of several plates including the Pacific Plate, the Eurasian Plate and the Philippine Subplate, and is the most seismically active region in China. Since 1970, an average of 14 earthquakes of magnitude-5.0 or greater have occurred each year.

Zhu Haoning also contributed to the story