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A strong earthquake jolted southern Taiwan on Friday, shaking buildings, collapsing several homes and triggering a fire near the epicenter, seismologists and local media reported.

The quake, with a preliminary magnitude of 6.4, struck at 10:19 a.m (0219 GMT) and its epicenter was 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) north of the city of Chiayi, the Central Weather Bureau said. Originally, the bureau said it had struck three minutes later.

Several aftershocks followed, including 5.1- and 6-magnitude tremors, it said.

Chiayi is about 300 kilometers (180 miles) south of Taipei.

The bureau said the Friday quake was unrelated to the 7.6-magnitude temblor that struck central Taiwan on September 21 and killed more than 2,300 people.

State-run radio said several houses collapsed, injuring at least three people. About 15 gas leaks and two other small fires were reported, the report said.

Bottles of chemicals fell in a lab at Chungcheng University in Chiayi and started a fire. The university and several other schools evacuated students, the report said.

Earthquake magnitude is a measure of the total energy released by an earthquake, as indicated by ground motion recorded on seismographs. An increase of one digit in the scale represents a tenfold increase in the strength of the quake.

An earthquake with a magnitude of 6 can cause severe damage in a populated area.

Taiwan's September 21 quake in central Nantou county, at 7.6 magnitude, toppled some 52,000 buildings across central and northern parts of the island. Most of the 2,321 deaths involved people buried in collapsed buildings.

-- earth (qu@k.e), October 22, 1999

Answers

10/22/99 -- 5:17 AM

Strong earthquake jolts southern Taiwan

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) - A strong tremor shook earthquake-rattled Taiwan today, damaging schools, blacking out thousands of homes and injuring about 200 people, officials and local media said. No deaths were immediately reported.

The 6.4-magnitude quake that struck near the southern city of Chiayi was not related to the stronger tremor that killed more than 2,300 people one month ago in central Taiwan, seismologists said.

Damage from today's quake was minor compared to the 7.6-magnitude tremor on Sept. 21. Only a few buildings were damaged today, while thousands were destroyed last month.

About 80 aftershocks followed today's tremor but only a few were strong enough to be felt, including 5.1- and 6-magnitude tremors, the Central Weather Bureau said.

Chiayi, with a population of 263,000 and located 180 miles south of Taipei, has been hit by several strong quakes in the past century, and seismologists have said it was due for another big one soon.

The island's main evening newspapers reported today that about 200 people were taken to hospitals. Most suffered only minor injuries, TVBS television reported.

The quake knocked over bottles of chemicals in a lab at Chungcheng University in Chiayi, causing an explosion and a fire that was quickly extinguished.

``Everything fell off the shelves and the glassware shattered and everyone ran out of the laboratory,'' one student told TVBS.

Another student told TVBS, ``I knew it wasn't a minor quake because the shaking kept getting stronger.''

A section of a high school collapsed, injuring seven people, officials said.

The first floor of a shipping company's two-story building also gave way, but there were no reports of serious injuries.

``We thought one person was trapped in the building, and we were calling for him, but five minutes later he escaped through the back of the building,'' the company's owner told TVBS.

Schools in Chiayi closed and sent children home for the rest of the afternoon.

About 90,000 homes lost power.

In 1906, a quake of magnitude 7.1 hit near Chiayi, killing 1,258 people. Another tremor, of 7.1 magnitude, killed 358 in the city in 1941.

Located along the earthquake-prone Pacific Rim and crisscrossed by 51 fault lines, Taiwan is rattled by scores of earthquakes each year, most harmless.

Earthquake magnitude is a measure of the total energy released by an earthquake, as indicated by ground motion recorded on seismographs. An increase of one digit in the scale represents a tenfold increase in the strength of the quake.

An earthquake with a magnitude of 6 can cause severe damage in a populated area.

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More delays in the JIT pipeline. Can't recover by Rollover. All the DGIs who plan to FOF by buying a new computer in January --
good luck :-(

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), October 22, 1999.