Publication Date:
2016-08-31
Description:
On 5 February 2016, a moderate earthquake occurred in southwestern Taiwan with M L 6.4 and a focal depth of 16.7 km. This earthquake caused damage to a few buildings and 117 casualties. A low-cost earthquake early warning (EEW) system ( P -alert) is in operation for the purpose of EEW and for providing near-real-time shake maps. During this event, a detailed shaking map was generated by the P -alert system within 2 min after the earthquake occurrence, and the high shaking regions strongly correlated with the locations in which the damage and casualties occurred. In the field, individual P -alert devices also serve as onsite EEW systems using P -wave information. The individual P -alert provided a 4–8 s lead time before the arrival of violent shaking in the damaged regions. For regional EEW, both the Central Weather Bureau (CWB, official agency) and the P -alert system responded very well. Currently, regional warnings in Taiwan are only provided to cities at epicentral distances of 50 km or more by the CWB. For cities within a 50-km epicentral distance, the P -alert system could be useful for providing onsite EEW. The performance of the P -alert network during this earthquake proves the efficiency of this real-time, low-cost network in terms of early warning (regional and onsite), near-real-time shake maps, rapid reports, and strong-motion data for research purposes.
Print ISSN:
0895-0695
Electronic ISSN:
1938-2057
Topics:
Geosciences
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