On February 6th, a 6.0 magnitude earthquake hit Taiwan. From this earthquake, 17 people died and 280 people were injured. In Hualian, where the earthquake happened, some buildings including a hotel had fallen down. Because of this, more people died and were injured trapped in the fallen buildings. Especially, a four-floor hotel had fallen down, so many people were trapped in the ruins. The number of injured foreigners caused by this earthquake was 31, and the number of Korean injurers was 14. However, this earthquake wasn’t the end. On February 19th, at night, a 5.3 magnitude earthquake hit Taiwan again.The Damage wasn’t large, but many people became nervous about the earthquakes. Also, there were some more earthquakes of which the magnitude was over 5.0 near Taiwan. There were hundreds of respectively weak earthquakes before the first strong earthquake happened on February 6th. On February 26th, one more strong earthquake hit Taiwan. This time, 17 people died. Taiwan is suffering from a series of earthquakes, so 39 Korean members of the National Assembly gave donations for recovery from the damage of earthquakes. Because of these series of earthquakes, people are very worried about earthquakes.

“Recently, too many earthquakes hit Taiwan”. Prof. Lee, the Taiwanese geologist said, “There were a series of strong earthquakes that hit Taiwan. These earthquakes are swarm earthquakes and are caused as Philippine sea plate dive under the Eurasian plate. On the grounds of these series of earthquakes, I think that Taiwan has entered a 100-year cycle of strong earthquakes of which the magnitude is over 8.0. I predict that another stronger earthquake will hit Taiwan in a few decades. There were two earthquakes of which the magnitude was over 8 in the early twentieth century, and I think a 100-year cycle of earthquakes such as these two earthquakes will start.” Also, there are some oppositions to this idea. The Chief of the Taiwan Seismological Center said, “There are only a few records of strong earthquakes, so it’s too hasty to mention a 100-year cycle of earthquakes.” Watching these earthquakes of Taiwan, Prof. Son, the geology professor of Busan university said, “If an earthquake happens, the ground moves, and this can make more earthquakes in other nearby countries. Especially, Korea should be careful because Korea’s period of inactivity of earthquakes was too long. There were lots of earthquakes that happened in history, but since the 17th century, there had been few earthquakes. However, recently, earthquakes are happening. This may mean that earthquakes will happen more actively, so Korea should be careful.”

Recently, many geologists predict that the circum-Pacific orogenic zone which is known as ‘ The Ring of Fire’ has been activated. There were more earthquakes along the Ring of Fire. There was an earthquake of magnitude 7.5 near Papua New Guinea. Because of this earthquake, landslides happened on some islands. Also, there was an earthquake of magnitude 5.7 in Japan. There was almost no damage, but people could feel the earthquake. In addition to these, volcanoes in Japan and Indonesia erupted. The volcano of Japan erupted for the first time in 35 years. Many geologists say that a lot of power had been gathered in the Ring of Fire. If the Ring of Fire becomes active, there will be big earthquakes in Japan and California. They also say that mankind can’t predict big earthquakes yet and we can only watch big earthquakes and try to predict them and that we should always be careful because we don’t know when a big earthquake will happen. Hopefully, these recent earthquakes are historically normal events. However, we must prepare for big earthquakes which may happen in the future.