The Taiwan Central Weather Bureau reported a Magnitude 6.7 Earthquake at a depth of 62.6 km off the eastern coast of Taiwan, slightly after 1.40 am local time on Wednesday 23 March 2022 local time (slightly after 5.40 pm on Tuesday 22 March, GMT). There are no reports of any damage or casualties at this time, but it was felt across the island, and on parts of the Chinese mainland.
Taiwan has a complex tectonic setting, lying on the boundary between the Eurasian and Philippine Plates, with the Eurasian Plate being subducted beneath the Philippine Plate in the South and the Philippine Plate being subducted beneath the Eurasian in the East. Subduction is not a smooth process even in simple settings, with plates typically sticking together as pressure from tectonic expansion elsewhere builds up, then suddenly breaking apart and shifting abruptly, causing Earthquakes.
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