Strong earthquakes struck both the Atlantic and Pacific basins today, with two 6.7 earthquakes located nearly opposite of each other on Earth. The first struck the Mid Atlantic Ridge in the North Atlantic while a series of earthquakes, including a 6.7, rocked Taiwan less than an hour after the Atlantic earthquake. The National Weather Service Pacific Tsunami Warning Center which issues advisories for both Pacific and Atlantic tsunami issued a series of Tsunami Information Statements on both earthquakes, stressing there is no tsunami threat to the islands of Hawaii, the U.S West Coast, nor the U.S. East Coast.
The 6.7 earthquake along the northern Mid Atlantic Ridge struck at 12:35 pm ET today. The earthquake had an estimated depth of 10 km. Located between South America and Europe in the central North Atlantic, there is no landmass around the area that would have felt shaking.
“There is no tsunami danger for the U.S. east coast, the Gulf of Mexico states, or the eastern coast of Canada,” the National Weather Service National Tsunami Warning Center in Palmer, Alaska said in a bulletin after the quake. “Based on the earthquake location near the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a damaging tsunami is not expected.”
Taiwan continues to shake after a series of moderate to strong earthquakes rocked the island’s east coast. Yesterday, a 4.9 magnitude earthquake struck yesterday afternoon followed by a 5.1 this afternoon. The 5.1 was followed 35 minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 earthquake. Since then, a 5.8, 4.9, 5.5, 5.7, and 4.7 have struck the eastern portion of Taiwan. While people were rocked out of bed and some captured video showing swaying objects around their homes, there isn’t widespread reports of major damage.
Taiwan was hit by a 6.5 magnitude earthquake last year, where once again, very little damage was reported.
