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Orange Earthquake Alert in China

Summary

On 11/5/2009 9:32:55 AM UTC an earthquake of magnitude 5.6 and depth 11.9km has struck an very highly populated area in the Taiwan Province (population: 22.4 million) in China. GDACS estimates the likelihood for need of international humanitarian intervention to be medium (Orange alert). This earthquake can have a medium humanitarian impact since the affected region is very highly populated and has medium resilience for natural disasters. The earthquake 17km from the city of Tou-liu. The nearest populated places are Ta-pang (19km), T'ien-liao (17km), Ha-li-wei (9km), Shiao-Mei (13km), Ku-keng (13km), T'ung-t'ou (5km), Lu-ku-hsiang (14km), Ta-jen-tung (8km), Y�n-lin (18km), Kuang-hsing-ts'un (16km), Chu-wei-tzu (16km), Hsia-wei-liao (18km). It is a mountainous region with a maximum altitude of 3702 m. Humanitarian Impact   Population resilience   Tsunami probability   Landslide probability   Nuclear radiation probability   Caution: this information is based on risk models. Whether international humanitarian aid is needed must be decided by an expert. This report was automatically updated by a computer on: 11/5/2009 7:54:38 PM UTC (10 hours 21 minutes after the event) Downloads: Word report, PDF report Explanation of alert calculation: Show The impact model combines magnitude (M), population within 100km (P) and vulnerability/resilience ECHO average score (V) using the formula: alertscore = max(M-4.5,0) * log10(max(P / 80000,0))^ 0.5 * max(V,0.5) ^ 1.5 / 3 The weighted product of magnitude (5.6), population (8735691) and vulnerability (1.63) results in an alertscore of 1.08937401287402 Then alert is Red if alertscore>2, Orange if alertscore>1 and Green if alertscore<=1.

Google map   Population map Population Density near epicenter (people/km2). Image area: 6x4 decimal degrees (approx. 650x450km2). Earthquake epicentre: best estimate    previous estimates:

Earthquake Event

Geological map Characteristics for this report Information source World Data Centre for Seismology, Denver (NEIC) Link to source event report (us2009nqaq) PAGER report (2009nqaq) Magnitude 5.6 M Depth 11.9 km Location Geographic coordinates (latitude/longitude): 23.6106, 120.6695 China , Taiwan Province (population: 22456987). Seismic region: Taiwan. The earthquake happened in China , Taiwan Province (population: 22456987). , 17km from the city of Tou-liu. The nearest populated places are Ta-pang (19km), T'ien-liao (17km), Ha-li-wei (9km), Shiao-Mei (13km), Ku-keng (13km), T'ung-t'ou (5km), Lu-ku-hsiang (14km), Ta-jen-tung (8km), Y�n-lin (18km), Kuang-hsing-ts'un (16km), Chu-wei-tzu (16km), Hsia-wei-liao (18km). It is a mountainous region with a maximum altitude of 3702 m. Time 11/5/2009 9:32:55 AM (UTC, Universal Standard Time) 11/5/2009 5:35:36 PM (Estimated local solar time) Thu, 11/5/2009 10:32 CET (Brussels, Paris, Rome) Thu, 11/5/2009 04:32 EST (New York, Washington) Thu, 11/5/2009 01:32 PST (San Francisco, Los Angeles) Thu, 11/5/2009 17:32 AWST (Australian Western Standard Time)

Previous reports for this earthquake. Earthquake report Tsunami report Event Date/Time Lat/Lon Magnitude Depth (km) Source Publication Date/Time Delay 68984 11/5/2009 9:33:02 AM UTC 23.9, 120.87 5.8 55 GEOFON 11/5/2009 9:40:31 AM UTC 7min 68985 11/5/2009 9:33:02 AM UTC 23.84, 120.94 5.7 61 GEOFON 11/5/2009 9:44:50 AM UTC 11min 68986 11/5/2009 9:33:00 AM UTC 23.856, 120.63 5.6 29 NOAA (at00741358) 11/5/2009 9:49:06 AM UTC 16min 68987 11/5/2009 9:33:02 AM UTC 23.76, 120.94 5.8 48 GEOFON 11/5/2009 9:49:07 AM UTC 16min 68988 11/5/2009 9:32:55 AM UTC 23.6106, 120.6695 5.7 11.9 NEIC (us2009nqaq) 11/5/2009 9:56:34 AM UTC 23min 68990 11/5/2009 9:33:02 AM UTC 23.73, 120.89 5.8 51 GEOFON 11/5/2009 9:56:35 AM UTC 23min 68996 11/5/2009 9:32:58 AM UTC 23.74, 120.83 5.8 25 GEOFON 11/5/2009 10:18:20 AM UTC 45min 69000 11/5/2009 9:32:05 AM UTC 23.77, 120.71 5.7 10 EMSC 11/5/2009 10:47:14 AM UTC 75min 69025 11/5/2009 9:32:55 AM UTC 23.6106, 120.6695 5.6 11.9 NEIC (us2009nqaq) 11/5/2009 7:54:38 PM UTC 621min

Earthquake Impact Details

Potentially affected People

The population in the area of this earthquake if 394 people/km². (Data source).

The earthquake occurred at 17h local time. At this time a day, more people are at work and therefore more vulnerable to collapsing office buildings. During traffic hours, people can be affected by collapsing bridges and other road infrastructure.

Damage

The affected region has low level of urban area (0%) and a high level of cultivated area (18.3%). In urban areas more damage can be expected than in cultivated or natural areas. (Data source)

Resilience and Vulnerability

Resilience is the capacity of the population to cope with a hazard. Since much of investments in earthquake preparedness and available funds for quick response is related to household income, the GDP per capita can be used as a rough indicator of resilience.

China has a GDP per capita of 768 PPP$ (Parity Purchasing Power Dollar, about 1 Euro) and is therefore part of the medium level income countries. Therefore, the earthquake happened in an area of medium resilience.

Based on the combination of 9 indicators, ECHO attributes China a medium vulnerability.

ECHO Intervention Priority Ranking for China
Overall situation
Human Development
Human Poverty
Exposure to Major Disasters
Natural Disasters
Conflicts
Humanitarian effects of population movement
Refugees
Internally Displaced People
Health and Nutrition
Undernourishment
Mortality rates
Donor contributions
Official Development assistance
Source ECHO Key: Bad - Medium - Good - No data

Exposure

Both conditions for survival and conditions for delivering aid strongly depend on the current weather and temperature. The following graphs show the current and forecast weather.

Current weather conditions and forecasts at earthquake location (lat: 23.6106 - long: 120.6695) (Data source).

More detailed observations at closest weather station (Chiayi): WeatherByWeb - NOAA

Probability of Secondary effects

Landslides: The maximum slope in the area of the earthquake is 67.023% and the maximum altitude is 3702 m. Since this is a high slope, the risk of earthquake induced landslides is high. Note, however, that the slope data is not reliable on a local scale, while landslides depend very much on local topography, soil and meteorological conditions. More...

Critical infrastructure

The following critical infrastructure is nearby and could be affected by the earthquake:

• Nuclear power plants: There are no nuclear facilities nearby the epicenter.
• Hydrodams: The following hydrodam installations are near the epicenter: (139km), MAANSHAN (183km)

The distance to nuclear installations is evaluated based on a 1999 UN dataset containing the location of nuclear plants in the world. If plants are near and the earthquake magnitude is above 6.5, the alert is set to orange. Note that the location of plants is approximate with errors of up to 100km.

Getting there and away

The nearest civilian airport (Chiayi) is at 33km from the epicenter. The Civil/Military airfield of Highway Strip 260 is located at 28km from the epicenter. Other airports are: Orchid Island (197km), Hengchun (175km), Kaohsiung International (119km), Green Island (132km), Pingtung South (106km), Pingtung North (103km), Tso Ying (108km), Feng Nin (105km), Kangshan (101km), Taitung (105km), Highway Strip 331 334 (87km), Tainan (87km), Kuei Jen (80km), Chi Mei (134km), Highway Strip 296 298 (60km), Wang An (122km), Chiayi (33km), P Eng Hu (111km), Highway Strip 260 (28km), Makung Ab (109km), Sun Moon Lake (41km), Highway Strip 206 (42km), Hualien (107km), Taichung (64km), Lishan (90km), Ching Chuan Kang Ab (73km), (166km), Hsinchu (137km), Lung Tan (150km), Ao Hu Kou (145km), Pa Kuei (161km), Highway Strip 58 60 (159km), Taoyuan (171km), Sungshan (185km), Chiang Kai Shek International (173km)

Ports nearby are: Lan Yu Island (196km), Kaohsiung (119km), Tai Tung (105km), An Ping Chiang (86km), Tai Nan (73km), Peng Hu (118km), Hualien (106km), Taichung (71km), Tai Chung (140km), Suao (163km), Tan Shui (190km)

Disclaimer

While we try everything to ensure accuracy, this information is purely indicative and should not be used for any decision making without alternate sources of information. The JRC is not responsible for any damage or loss resulting from the use of the information presented on this website.

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