Taiwan Has Been Hit By 6.1 Magnitude Earthquakes

Taipei, Taiwan: The island nation of Taiwan was hit by a series of earthquakes early Tuesday. The largest of these was 6.1 on the Richter scale, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Reports of injuries or deaths were not made public, but two multi-story buildings that had been removed after earlier this month's magnitude 7.4 quake that killed 13 and hurt over 1,000 were damaged even more. The epicenter of that quake was near the coast of Hualien County, which is mostly rural and hilly.

There were hundreds of aftershocks after the main quake, which was Taiwan's biggest in 25 years. The ones that happened on Tuesday are thought to be the most recent ones.

The 9.1-magnitude quake that happened on Tuesday had its impact 10.7 kilometers (28 kilometers) south of the city of Hualien. The other six quakes were all close to Hualien and had magnitudes between 4.5 and 6. Taiwan's own center for tracking earthquakes said the first one was 6.3 on the Richter scale. There are a lot of small differences, like these between monitoring sites.

The two biggest ones were at 2:26 a.m. and 2:32 a.m. Tuesday, when they were magnitudes 6.0 and 6.3, according to the Taiwan center. Many of the aftershocks could be felt on the upper floors of apartment buildings in Taipei, the capital, which is 150 kilometers (93 miles) to the northwest and across steep mountains.

The quakes caused part of the Full Hotel in downtown Hualien to fall apart, leaving it leaning at a very steep angle. However, it was closed at the time because it was being renovated and no one was staying there. Following major damage in the April 3 earthquake, the nearby Tong Shuai Building was also empty. It had been marked for removal.

On Tuesday, schools and businesses in Hualien and the nearby county were closed because of hundreds of aftershocks happening on land and in the Pacific Ocean near the coast. Most of the aftershocks were below magnitude 3. The authorities advised those whose homes had suffered damage in the previous earthquake to leave until the waves subsided. Some people chose to wait in their cars.

In the rough Taroko Gorge, where several tourists died in the April 3 earthquake, rock slides blocked part of the road. Although the train from Taipei to Hualien was stopped, there wasn't much of a problem with traffic, and provincial highway 8 should be clear by Wednesday. The damage was not too bad. Some walkways and bridges got cracks, and some tiles fell off the outside walls.

Taiwan has had strong earthquakes before, but experts say that the 23 million people who live on the high-tech island haven't been hurt too badly because the country is so well prepared for them. The island also has strict building rules and large-scale efforts to teach people about earthquakes.

Around 2,400 people died in Taiwan in 1999 in an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.7.

Taiwan is on the Pacific "Ring of Fire," which is a line of earthquake ridges that goes around the Pacific Ocean from South America to Japan, Indonesia, and New Zealand. This is where most of the world's earthquakes happen. On the island, quakes happen almost every day, and their epicenters are often in the Pacific. People there often call them "the movement of the earth cattle."

Taiwan's Cabinet has set aside more than 20 billion Taiwan Dollars ($614.9 million) to help people who were hurt in the April 3 earthquake and to rebuild.