- Quake occurred as result of reverse faulting near boundary between Eurasia and Philippine Sea plates.
- A reverse fault is a split between two sections of rock in Earth's crust, caused by compressional forces.
- Notably, Taiwan is prone to earthquakes as it lies along the Pacific “Ring of Fire” or Circum-Pacific Belt.
- Ring of Fire:
- It is a horseshoe-shaped string of volcanoes and sites of seismic activity around the edges of Pacific Ocean.
- Roughly 90% of all earthquakes occur along Ring of Fire, and it has 75% of all active volcanoes on Earth.
- It is the result of plate tectonics as it traces the meeting points of numerous tectonic plates, including the Pacific, Juan de Fuca, Cocos, Indian-Australian, Nazca, North American, and Philippine Plates.
- Much of the volcanic activity occurs along subduction zones, which are convergent plate boundaries.
- As heavier plate is subducted under other plate, it melts and produces magma that erupts as volcano.
- A stretch of Ring of Fire - border between Pacific and North American Plates – is a transform boundary, where plates move sideways past one another.
- This boundary generates large number of earthquakes as tension in Earth’s crust builds up and is released.