After a 7.2 magnitude earthquake strikes Taiwan, Japan detects the first tsunami wave

Taiwan Earthquake: According to PTI, which cited AP, Japan said on Wednesday that the country’s southern islands have been impacted by the first tsunami waves after a powerful 7.2-magnitude earthquake that slammed Taiwan. Following a powerful earthquake, Hualien, Taiwan, saw several shock waves and significant structural damage.

In the sparsely inhabited Hualien, a five-story structure seemed severely damaged, with the first level falling and the remaining stories tilting at a 45-degree angle. Tiles from older buildings and some of the newer office complexes in Taipei, the capital, collapsed.

The 23 million-person island saw the suspension of train and underground services in Taipei. However, everything in the capital soon reverted to normal, with kids heading back to school and the morning traffic seeming to run as usual.

The first tsunami waves struck Yonaguni Island in Japan.
About fifteen minutes after the earthquake, a tsunami wave of thirty centimetres, or about one foot, was seen off the shore of Yonaguni Island, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. According to JAMA, waves most likely also struck the Yaeyama and Miyako island beaches.

The Self-Defence Force of Japan sent planes to collect data on the tsunami’s effects in the Okinawa area and was getting ready to host evacuees in case it became required.

The U.S. Geological Survey reported a magnitude of 7.4, whereas Taiwan’s earthquake monitoring agency reported a value of 7.2. It was around 18 kilometres southwest of Hualien when it hit at 7:58 a.m., and its depth was about 35 kilometres (21 miles).

Wu Chien-fu, the director of Taiwan’s earthquake monitoring bureau, said that the impacts were felt as far away as Kinmen, an island under Taiwanese administration off the coast of China. An hour after the first earthquake, Taipei saw many aftershocks.

One of the later earthquakes, according to the USGS, had a magnitude of 6.5 and a depth of 11.8 kilometres (7 miles).

Hawaii and the US territory of Guam in the Pacific were not in danger from tsunamis, according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre.

The earthquake was thought to be the largest to strike Taiwan since one that left significant damage in 1999. Taiwan is located along the “Ring of Fire,” a chain of seismic faults that circles the Pacific Ocean and is the epicentre of most earthquakes worldwide.