Just after 4am last night a big earthquake struck off the coast of Taidong. The last time we had a quake i thought it was the biggest one i'd felt here but this was bigger. Woke to the sound of things crashing down off shelves and the house shaking violently and a for few seconds it was quite alarming. Would have been even scarier if you were in a highrise apartment building. CWB measured it as 6.1. So far as i know, the biggest quake ever to strike Taidong was a 6.5, so not far off that. Luckily, it didn't last too long.

Haven't heard any reports of damage in Taidong city but i would imagine there must have been some.

I once read that a thin line of cloud showin up on the sat can be a precursor for an earhtquake. The theory being that that the ground lets out gas prior to the quake which then forms vapour. Anyway, noticed this about 36 hours ago and wondered about it at the time - then we did have a big quake.

We felt it in Kaohsiung. It went on for quite a while. I can imagine what it felt like in Taidong!

Surprisingly, there were no reports of major damage. Must have been just shy of what it takes to collapse things. Definitely enough to get your attention though.

My experience has been that a 6.4 or 6.5 is the margin between a relatively non-destructive quake and something that collapses structures. A 6.7 is going to cause some things to fall down in Taiwan, while a 6.3 may not. Anything over a 6.0 is downright frightening, and even a 5.5 can scare the daylights out of me if I'm right over it.

From here in Kaohsiung, I rather enjoyed your recent earthquake! Nice, rolling action.

Other observations: The things that collapse most easily are unreinforced brick and any structure built on landfill.