Taiwan rocked by strong earthquake Sunday

From staff and wire reports

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- A strong earthquake registering a preliminary magnitude of 6.2 rocked east-central Taiwan on Sunday, cutting power and damaging roads in some areas. No building collapses or deaths were immediately reported after the quake struck at 4:55 p.m. (0855 GMT).

The quake's epicenter was 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) southeast of Hsincheng, a city in Hualien county, said Kuo Kai-wen, deputy director of the Central Weather Bureau's seismology center.

Transportation Minister Yeh Chu-lan told reporters that scattered damage was reported, including collapsed roads and blackouts. She said there were no reports of serious damage, but disaster officials were still checking the mountainous region.

In Taipei, the capital, the quake was strong enough to shake buildings, causing light fixtures to sway and objects to fall off shelves. Taipei is about 100 miles north of the epicenter.

Tremors often rattle Taiwan because the island sits on two tectonic plates -- huge, moving slabs of the Earth's crust. The slabs, called the Euro-Asian and Philippine plates, rubbed together Sunday, causing the quake, seismologists said.

Sunday's tremor struck 11 days before the first anniversary of killer earthquakes that killed 2,400 people. Earthquakes measuring between 7.3 and 7.6 on the Richter scale shook Taiwan last September 21, wrecking 52,000 buildings.

Seismologists said the two earthquakes were not related.

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USGS National Earthquake Information Center
Global Earthquake Response Center
World Vision
Government Information Office, Taiwan
Taiwan Resources

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