2006 Hengchun earthquake

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2006 Hengchun earthquake
2006 Hengchun earthquake (Taiwan)
Bullseye1.svg
Coordinates 21 ° 49 '12 "  N , 120 ° 36' 36"  E Coordinates: 21 ° 49 '12 "  N , 120 ° 36' 36"  E
date December 26, 2006
Time 20:26 ( local time )
(12:26:21 UTC )
Magnitude 7.1  M W
depth 10 km
epicenter off the coast of Hengchun , Pingtung County
country Taiwan
dead 2
Injured 45


USGS map of the earthquake

On December 26, 2006 , at 8:26 pm local time, an earthquake occurred near Hengchun , with its epicenter near the southern tip of the island of Taiwan .

course

The epicenter of the main earthquake with magnitude 6.7  M L or 7.1  M wb was about 22.8 km southwest of the coast of the Taiwanese community of Hengchun (90 kilometers south of Kaohsiung ) in Formosa Street , the quake focus was about 10 km deep. After that, two larger aftershocks occurred about 8 minutes later (8:34 p.m.; 6.4 M L and 6.9 M w ) and 14 minutes later (8:40 p.m.; 5.2 M L ), as well as numerous weaker ones Aftershocks. The building damage caused by the quake was comparatively limited and limited to the area around Hengchun. A four-story commercial building collapsed - presumably due to the instability of the first floor - and three residential buildings were badly damaged. Numerous smaller fires broke out, which were quickly extinguished. 134 school buildings were damaged and part of the historic old town wall of Hengchun collapsed. A total of two people were killed and 45 others were injured.

Since the quake occurred under the sea floor, a tsunami warning was triggered - the earthquake occurred exactly two years to the day after the devastating earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean in 2004 . However, no major wave movements were registered on the nearby Taiwanese coast or in the other countries bordering Formosa Street or Luzon Street .

The Maanshan nuclear power plant on the southern tip of Taiwan registered the strongest earth movements since records began. To be on the safe side, reactor block 1 was shut down temporarily, while reactor block 2 remained in operation.

Effects on submarine cable connections

Taiwan lies in the subduction zone on the border of the Eurasian and Philippine plates and is frequently shaken by smaller earthquakes. The damage to property and personal injury caused by the Hengchun earthquake was limited compared to other earthquakes in Taiwan before and after (e.g. Jiji earthquake in 1999, Kaohsiung earthquake in 2016 ). By far the greatest economic damage was caused by the damage to several submarine cables. 7 submarine cables failed as a result of the seaquake. This had a serious impact on electronic data traffic in several East and Southeast Asian countries. Hong Kong in particular was hit by the failure of the RNAL cable ( Reach North Asia Loop ) . The failure of APCN System 2 ( Asia-Pacific Cable Network ) primarily affected Taiwan, while the failure of APCN2 disrupted the connections between Hong Kong, Singapore , Malaysia and the Philippines on the one hand to Japan , Taiwan and South Korea on the other. By using multiple cable layers , most of the damage was repaired in the weeks that followed.

Submarine cable damage after the Hengchun earthquake
Submarine cables disrupted by the Hengchun earthquake
Surname segment Interruption (local time, UTC + 8 )
RNAL Busan ( South Korea ) and Tong Fuk ( Hong Kong ) 8:43 pm Dec 26th
APCN system 1 Segment B17 (junction to Hong Kong) 02:15 Dec 27
APCN system 2 Segment B5 (branch to Taiwan) 04:44 Dec 27
SEA-ME-WE 3 Segment 1.8 ( Fangshan - BU4)
Segment 1.7 (BU3 - BU4)		 20:25 Dec 26
APCN2 Segment 7 ( Tanshui - Shantou )
Segment 3 (Hong Kong - Chongming )		 00:06 Dec 27
China-US Segment W1 ( Shantou - Chongming)
Segment W2 (branch after Fangshan)
Segment S1 (Shantou - Okinawa )		 8:27 pm Dec 26th
FLAG FEA Sub-System 8 (Hong Kong - Shanghai - South Korea) 04:56 Dec 27

The failure of the submarine cables highlighted the importance of this communication infrastructure laid on the seabed for the international economy and its susceptibility to seaquakes. In the following years several international conferences, scientific publications and damage analyzes were devoted to this topic. Nowadays attempts are made to prevent such damage or to accelerate the repair of damaged submarine cables as much as possible through redundant data networks and special submarine cable designs and intensive monitoring.

See also

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ M 7.1 - Taiwan region, 2006-12-26, 12:26:21 (UTC), 21.799 ° N 120.547 ° E, 10.0 km depth. In: Earthquake Hazards Program. USGS , accessed November 13, 2019 .
  2. ↑ a b c Yuan-Tao Weng, Chu-Chieh Jay Lin, Wen-Yu Jean, Tao-Ming Chang, Vivek Walia, Jiunn-Shyang Chiou, Yeong-Kae Yeh, Tsung-Chih Chiou, Fan-Ru Lin, Ching- Yun Kao, Ming-Wey Huang, Siao-Syun Ke, Wen-Ray Su, Hao-Jan Hsing, Tzu-Hsiu Wu, Bing-Ru Wu, George C. Yao: Learning from Earthquakes: The M L 6.7 (M W 7.1 ) Taiwan Earthquake of December 26, 2006. (PDF) Retrieved November 18, 2017 (final report by a team of Taiwanese experts).
  3. ^ Tsunami alert as quake hits Taiwan. China Daily, December 26, 2006, accessed November 18, 2017 .
  4. ↑ Kou-Liang Wen, Yu-Wen Chang, Che-Min Lin, Hsien-Jen Chiang, Ming-Wey Huang: Damage and Ground Motion of the December 26, 2006 Pingtung Earthquakes, Taiwan . In: Terr. Atmos. Ocean. Sci. tape 19 , no. 6 , December 2008, pp. 641–651 , doi : 10.3319 / TAO.2008.19.6.641 (PT) (English, online [PDF]).
  5. ↑ Asia communications hit by quake. BBC News, December 27, 2006, accessed November 17, 2017 .
  6. ^ Franz-Stefan Gady: Undersea Cables: The Achilles Heel of our Economies. The Huffington Post, December 21, 2010, accessed November 18, 2017 .
  7. ^ Liu, A: Response analysis of a submarine cable under fault movement . In: Earthq. Closely. Closely. Vib. tape 8 , no. 159 , 2009, doi : 10.1007 / s11803-009-8054-3 (English).
  8. ↑ Edmund WW Chan, Xiapu Luo, WT Fok, Weichao Li, Rocky KC Chang: Non-cooperative Diagnosis of Submarine Cable Faults . In: Neil Spring, George F. Riley (Eds.): Passive and Active Measurement: 12th International Conference, PAM 2011 . Springer-Verlag, 2011, ISBN 978-3-642-19259-3 , pp. 224-234 , doi : 10.1007 / 978-3-642-19260-9 (English).