As of 1:30 a.m. on July 7, the earthquake had caused at least two buildings in Hualien to collapse, many buildings were tilted and damaged, roads and bridges were interrupted, and residents were cut off from water and electricity.
Why do more earthquakes occur in Taiwan?
Taiwan is located on the circum Pacific seismic belt, which is the most active seismic belt in the world, with frequent earthquakes. According to the theory of plate tectonics, the crust is relatively stable within the plate, and the crust movement is active at the junction of plate and plate.
This can explain the distribution of lithospheric earthquakes and volcanoes on the earth, which are mainly distributed at the junction of plates and plates (of course, each of the six major plates in the world can be divided into several small plates, so the junction of small plates also has many faults. ）Taiwan island is located at the collision junction of Asia Europe plate and Pacific plate, so there are many lithosphere, many faults, active crustal movement and many earthquakes. On a large scale, almost the whole Pacific rim is located at the junction of plates, which is an important volcanic and seismic distribution area.
Of course, there is also a Mediterranean Himalayan volcano seismic belt on earth. Circum Pacific seismic zone: it is distributed around the Pacific Ocean, including the Pacific coast of North and South America, from Aleutian Islands, Kamchatka Peninsula, Japan islands to Taiwan Province of China, then through the Philippines islands to Southeast, until New Zealand. This is the most widely distributed and earthquake prone seismic zone in the world, which releases about three-quarters of the world's energy.