Empirical Study of the Frequency and Severity of Earthquakes in Taiwan

Obi E. O.^1, , Abong A. A¹ and Ogbeche J. U¹

¹Department of Physics, Cross River University of Technology, Calabar, Nigeria

Cite this paper:
Obi E. O., Abong A. A and Ogbeche J. U. Empirical Study of the Frequency and Severity of Earthquakes in Taiwan. Journal of Geosciences and Geomatics. 2017; 5(4):167-172. doi: 10.12691/jgg-5-4-1

Abstract

The rate at which earthquake occurs in Taiwan was investigated for the period of fifty years (1961 – 2010). The result shows that the study area is characterized predominantly by minor, light and moderate earthquakes with the percentage of strong and major extremely low. The result also revealed that for each magnitude range, the number of shallow focus earthquakes is more than the intermediate focus earthquakes. No deep focus earthquake was observed. The shallow earthquake events with magnitude 4.0-4.9 (light) were the most frequent, followed by 5.0-5.9 (moderate), 3.0-3.9 (minor), 6.0-6.9 (strong) and the least frequent were with magnitude 7.0-7.9 (major). While for intermediate earthquakes, events with magnitude 4.0-4.9 were the most frequent, followed by 3.0-3.9, 5.0-5.9, 6.0-6.9 and the least frequent with magnitude 7.0-7.9 . It was also discovered that about three (3) shallow earthquakes occur monthly and about two (2) intermediate earthquakes occur yearly in Taiwan on the average. Furthermore the b-values were calculated for shallow and intermediate focus earthquakes to be 0.80 and 0.74 respectively. The b- values were calculated using the Gutenberg-Richter Relation. The low b- value indicates localized high stresses which are favourable for future rupture.

Keywords:
earthquake magnitude b value rupture Gutenberg-Richter

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