Taiwan Rocks - and keeps rocking

Edit on 4/5/06 - scroll to the end of this post for more recent earthquake info.

Had a pretty good sized earthquake yesterday, down in the southern part of Taiwan, 6.4, with four aftershocks following within the next few hours. http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2006/04/02/2003300496

I was out for dinner with some friends, including two from Hong Kong. I was just getting ready to take a bite of food when I felt incredibly dizzy, almost like I was going to pass out. I looked up, and across from me Joe from Hong Kong was also looking a little weird. I said, "Wow, was that an earthquake?" He said he felt it, too, that dizzy feeling. No one else at the table even noticed. Charlene said it's because we're not from here, so we're more sensitive. Taiwan folks have lived with earthquakes so long that they only notice if they're in a high building, or maybe lying on a bed when it starts to shake.

Thankfully, there doesn't appear to have been major damage, but lots of stuff in stores got smashed.

I truly hope we are not leading up to the Mother of All Earthquakes.....

4/5/06 - I just checked the latest earthquake stats, and it seems the whole island is rattling. There have been a total of 11 earthquakes since April 1 (as opposed to a total of 8 quakes in all of March), beginning with the 6.4 one in Taitung, and ending with a 5.7 one today. Most of them have been in the south and have been aftershocks from the 4/1 quake, measuring between 4.2 and 4.8 in magnitude, but two have been up closer to me. I didn't notice the one that occurred today at 3:30 a.m., because I was asleep, and it probably didn't shake Taipei County too much, since it was (thankfully) about 107 km out into the ocean.

Anyone interested in reviewing the earthquake data, please check the government link: http://www.cwb.gov.tw/V5e/index.htm and then click on the "Earthquake Report" link on the menu to the left.