Rock-n-Roll baby and I'm not talking music! There's a whole lotta shakin' going on! Haiti 7.0, Chile 8.8, and now Taiwan 6.4. The big difference in the Taiwan is that the earthquake was located on land and not at sea. I am writing this just an hour after it hit so the damage report is almost non existent currently- Wednesday evening.
A 6.4-magnitude earthquake jolted Southern Taiwan on Thursday morning (Wednesday evening US time), according to the U.S. Geological Survey. There were no immediate reports of injuries or deaths but some damage has occurred to buildings and major bridges, and power was cut off near the epicenter. The quake struck in a mountainous region about 25 miles northwest of Taitung, on the southeast coast, and 40 miles east of Tainan and Kaohsiung on the southwest coast.
So, what's next? Can a San Andreas one be too far behind?
The region, which includes Maolin National Scenic Area, is recovering from a direct hit by Typhoon Morakot that killed hundreds in August. The typhoon dumped more than two feet of rain, causing serious mudslides in the south, including one that buried the village of Shiao Lin under 50 feet of mud. The quake was followed by several aftershocks, the largest reaching 4.8. The initial 6.4 quake rumbled to the surface from 14 miles deep.
The Taiwan Ministry of Interior and the National Fire Agency said electricity was cut off near the epicenter but had no further information.
Earthquakes are not uncommon in the 13,892-square-mile island -- about the size of the U.S. states of Maryland and Delaware combined -- which sits across the juncture of the Eurasian and Philippine tectonic plates. A 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck the same general region in December. The island took a double hit on December 26, 2006, when earthquakes of 7.1 and 6.9 magnitude hit eight minutes apart.
The largest recorded quake to strike Taiwan was an 8.0-magnitude quake in 1920, but the worst earthquake disaster stemmed from a 7.1-magnitude quake in 1935 that killed more than 3,200 people -- followed by a 6.5-magnitude quake that killed more than 2,700 people three months later. Talk about lightning striking twice.
As a spiritual-futurist, I have a BA degree majoring in history. One cannot know the future without knowing the past which holds clues to what is on the horizon. The world is in such a rapid expansion of knowledge that we are close to entering a tipping point that will forever change earth as we know it.
