M 6 in Taiwan on 20 Jan 2025 16:17 UTC

Event summary

This earthquake can have a low humanitarian impact based on the magnitude and the affected population and their vulnerability.

GDACS ID EQ 1463169
Earthquake Magnitude: 6.0M
Depth: 10 Km
Lat/Lon: 23.2338 , 120.4749
Event Date: 20 Jan 2025 16:17 UTC
21 Jan 2025 00:17 Local
Exposed Population: 190 thousand (in MMI>=VII)
Inserted at: 20 Jan 2025 16:34 UTC
INFORM Coping capacity:
3.6 (Taiwan)

GDACS Score

For more info on GDACS alert score click here.
  Earthquake
(Shakemap)		 GDACS score
NEIC 0.9 0.9
us6000pl8h Scaled population (raster) 4.28  
  C1 shakemap -0.59  
  C2 shakemap 0.53  
  Country Vulnerability 0  
  INFORM_normalised 0.82  
Maximum expected impact using different data sources.
Virtual OSOCC
Meteo assessment
Satellite products
Analytical products
Taiwan - Earthquake (ECHO 26 Jan 2025)Tue, 21 Jan 2025 11:41

  • An earthquake of 6 M at a depth of 10 km occurred in Taiwan on 20 January at 16.17 UTC (21 January at 00.17 local time). The epicentre was located 12 km north of Yujing district, in eastern Tainan City, southern Taiwan. The main earthquake was followed by three aftershocks, ranging between 4.7 M and 5.1 M.
  • USGS PAGER estimated that up to 124,000 people were exposed to very strong shaking and up to 1,262,000 people to strong shaking.
  • According to media reports, as of 21 January, at least 27 people have been injured, several buildings have been evacuated, and moderate damage to infrastructures has been recorded in Chiayi and Tainan cities. In addition, school classes have been suspended.
     
Detailed event map. European Union, 2025. Map produced by EC-JRC.
The boundaries and the names shown on this map do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the European Union.

Updates on volcanic activity (Smithsonian)

Latest media headlines

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Estimated casualties (PAGER)

USGS estimates the number of casualties for each earthquake for the Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) product.
The graph shows the current fatalities estimate.

Exposed population

Data, images, links, services and documents

For this events, GDACS has links to information from the following sources: EC-JRC (48), (3), NEIC (4), OCHA (1), INGV (1), TWB (1), USGS (5), INFORM (2),