
The 2006 Hengchun earthquakes occurred on December 26 at 20:26 and 20:34
local time
Local time is the time observed in a specific locality. There is no canonical definition. Originally it was mean solar time, but since the introduction of time zones it is generally the time as determined by the time zone in effect, with daylight s ...
off the southwest coast of Taiwan in the
Luzon Strait
The Luzon Strait (Tagalog: ''Kipot ng Luzon'', ) is the strait between Luzon and Taiwan. The strait thereby connects the Philippine Sea to the South China Sea in the western Pacific Ocean.
This body of water is an important strait for shipp ...
, which connects the
South China Sea
The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by South China, in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan island, Taiwan and northwestern Philippines (mainly Luz ...
with the
Philippine Sea
The Philippine Sea is a List of seas#Marginal seas by ocean, marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean, Western Pacific Ocean east of the list of islands of the Philippines, Philippine Archipelago (hence the name) and the List of seas#Largest seas ...
. The
International Seismological Centre
The International Seismological Centre (ISC) is a non-governmental, nonprofit organisation charged with the final collection, definitive analysis and publication of global seismicity. The ISC was formed in 1964 as an international organisation ...
measured the shocks at 7.0 and 6.9 on the
moment magnitude scale
The moment magnitude scale (MMS; denoted explicitly with or Mwg, and generally implied with use of a single M for magnitude) is a measure of an earthquake's magnitude ("size" or strength) based on its seismic moment. was defined in a 1979 paper ...
. The earthquakes not only caused casualties and building damage, but several
submarine communications cable
A submarine communications cable is a cable laid on the seabed between land-based stations to carry telecommunication signals across stretches of ocean and sea. The first submarine communications cables were laid beginning in the 1850s and car ...
s were cut, disrupting telecommunication services in various parts of Asia.
Tectonic setting
Taiwan lies in a zone of complex interaction between the
Philippine Sea plate
The Philippine Sea plate or the Philippine plate is a tectonic plate comprising oceanic lithosphere that lies beneath the Philippine Sea, to the east of the Philippines. Most segments of the Philippines, including northern Luzon, are part of ...
(PSP) and the
Eurasian plate (EP). To the north, the PSP is
subducting
Subduction is a geological process in which the oceanic lithosphere and some continental lithosphere is recycled into the Earth's mantle at the convergent boundaries between tectonic plates. Where one tectonic plate converges with a second pla ...
beneath the EP along the line of the
Ryukyu Trench, forming the
Ryukyu Volcanic Arc. To the south, in contrast, the EP is subducting beneath the PSP along the line of the
Manila Trench
The Manila Trench is an oceanic trench in the Pacific Ocean, located west of the islands of Luzon and Mindoro in the Philippines. The trench reaches a depth of about , in contrast with the average depth of the South China Sea of about . It i ...
, forming the
Luzon Volcanic Arc
The Luzon Volcanic Arc is a volcanic arc, chain of volcanoes in a north–south line across the Luzon Strait from Taiwan to Luzon. The name "Luzon Volcanic Arc" was first proposed by Carl Bowin et al. to describe a series of Miocene to recent vo ...
. At its northern end the Luzon Arc is colliding with the continental margin of the Eurasian plate as the thicker and more buoyant crust enters the subduction zone. This zone of collision is propagating southwards and the
Hengchun Peninsula
Hengchun Peninsula () is a peninsula located in Pingtung County, Taiwan, and is named after Hengchun Township. It is the southernmost part of Taiwan. The Hengchun Peninsula is surrounded by the sea on three sides: the Taiwan Strait to the west, th ...
marks the early stages of this process.
Earthquake sequence
The sequence began with the first major earthquake at 12:26:21 (UTC), followed slightly less than eight minutes later by the second main shock at 12:34:15.
The first event had a
focal mechanism
The focal mechanism of an earthquake describes the Fault (geology)#Slip.2C heave.2C throw, deformation in the Hypocenter, source region that generates the seismic waves. In the case of a Fault (geology), fault-related event, it refers to the ori ...
indicating rupture along a
normal fault
In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic ...
, probably within the descending oceanic crust of the Eurasian plate as it bends within the subduction zone. Relocated aftershocks are consistent with a moderately west-dipping normal fault, with an estimated rupture area of 50 km x 35 km. The second event has a
strike-slip
In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic ...
focal mechanism, probably on a steep NNW–SSE trending, WSW-dipping fault, with an estimated rupture area of 65 km x 30 km. The two rupture areas show little overlap and the second event is likely to have been triggered by
stress transfer from the first event. The largest aftershock had a similar mechanism to the second main shock.
Damage
Taiwan
News agencies aired reports in southern Taiwan of collapsed houses, building fires, hotel guests being trapped in elevators, and telephone outages due to severed lines. Two people were reported killed and 42 injured. The earthquake was felt all over Taiwan, including the capital
Taipei
, nickname = The City of Azaleas
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, pushpin_map = Taiwan#Asia#Pacific Ocean#Earth
, coordinates =
, subdivision_type = Country ...
, north of
Hengchun
Hengchun is a Township (Taiwan), township located on the southern tip of the Hengchun Peninsula in Pingtung County, Taiwan. It is the southernmost township in Taiwan. Hengchun is also the only urban township in the southern part of Pingtung Coun ...
.
Power was knocked out to a reported 3,000 homes, but service was restored within a few hours. As of the following morning, cleanup was already underway.
Fifteen historical buildings, including a Grade 2 elephant site, were damaged in the historic center of Hengchun.
The nearby
Maanshan Nuclear Power Plant
The Maanshan Nuclear Power Plant ( or 核三; ''Hésān'') was a nuclear power plant located near South Bay, Hengchun, Pingtung County, Taiwan. The plant was Taiwan's third nuclear power plant and second-largest in generation capacity. Its two ...
was affected by the earthquake. Because of the vigorous vibration, the alarm at
Reactor #2 was activated, forcing the operators to carry out
SCRAM
A scram or SCRAM is an emergency shutdown of a nuclear reactor effected by immediately terminating the fission reaction. It is also the name that is given to the manually operated kill switch that initiates the shutdown. In commercial reactor ...
immediately. However, Reactor #1 was not affected and remained operational. After the emergency shutdown of Reactor #2, engineers checked the plant facilities and no problems were found.
Hong Kong and Macau
Residents in different
districts
A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions ...
of Hong Kong felt the earthquake. Fearing the collapse of their buildings, people in
Sham Shui Po
Sham Shui Po () is an area of Kowloon, Hong Kong, situated in the northwestern part of the Kowloon Peninsula, north of Tai Kok Tsui, east of Cheung Sha Wan and south of Shek Kip Mei (). It is located in and is the namesake of the Sham Shui ...
,
Wong Tai Sin
Wong Tai Sin or Huang Daxian () is a Chinese Taoist deity popular in Jinhua, Zhejiang, and Hong Kong with the power of healing. The name, meaning the "Great Immortal Wong (Huang)", is the divine form of Huang Chuping or Wong Cho Ping (; c. 328 ...
and
Yuen Long
Yuen Long is a town in the western New Territories, Hong Kong. To its west lie Hung Shui Kiu (), Tin Shui Wai, Lau Fau Shan and Ha Tsuen, to the south Shap Pat Heung and Tai Tong, to the east Au Tau and Kam Tin (), and to the north Nam Sang Wa ...
ran into the streets. The
Hong Kong Observatory
The Hong Kong Observatory is a weather forecast agency of the government of Hong Kong. The Observatory forecasts the weather and issues warnings on weather-related hazards. It also monitors and makes assessments on radiation levels in Hong ...
estimated the tremor as having a
Mercalli intensity of III (''Weak'') to IV (''Light''). In
Macau
Macau or Macao is a special administrative regions of China, special administrative region of the People's Republic of China (PRC). With a population of about people and a land area of , it is the most List of countries and dependencies by p ...
, residents called the Office for Meteorological and Geophysical Services to ask whether an earthquake had occurred in their city.
China
There were no reports of major damage in China, although the quake was felt there. In
Xiamen
Xiamen,), also known as Amoy ( ; from the Zhangzhou Hokkien pronunciation, zh, c=, s=, t=, p=, poj=Ē͘-mûi, historically romanized as Amoy, is a sub-provincial city in southeastern Fujian, People's Republic of China, beside the Taiwan Stra ...
, people evacuated their homes and offices to open spaces. The earthquake was also felt in various cities in
Guangdong
) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...
and
Fujian
Fujian is a provinces of China, province in East China, southeastern China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capital is Fuzhou and its largest prefe ...
provinces, including in
Guangzhou
Guangzhou, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Canton or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, southern China. Located on the Pearl River about nor ...
,
Shenzhen
Shenzhen is a prefecture-level city in the province of Guangdong, China. A Special economic zones of China, special economic zone, it is located on the east bank of the Pearl River (China), Pearl River estuary on the central coast of Guangdong ...
,
Shantou
Shantou, Chinese postal romanization, alternately romanization of Chinese, romanized as Swatow and sometimes known as Santow, is a prefecture-level city on the eastern coast of Guangdong, China, with a total population of 5,502,031 as of the 20 ...
, and
Fuzhou
Fuzhou is the capital of Fujian, China. The city lies between the Min River (Fujian), Min River estuary to the south and the city of Ningde to the north. Together, Fuzhou and Ningde make up the Eastern Min, Mindong linguistic and cultural regi ...
.
Tsunami
While this earthquake marked the first time a
tsunami
A tsunami ( ; from , ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and underwater explosions (including detonations, ...
was detected in Taiwan, the change in
water level
Water level, also known as gauge height or stage, is the elevation of the free surface of a sea, stream, lake or reservoir relative to a specified vertical datum.
Over long distances, neglecting external forcings (such as wind), water level ten ...
was only and no damage was caused. Early reports issued by the
Japan Meteorological Agency
The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA; ''気象庁, Kishō-chō'') is a division of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism dedicated to the Scientific, scientific observation and research of natural phenomena. Headquartered ...
indicated that the earthquake triggered a 1-meter
tsunami
A tsunami ( ; from , ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and underwater explosions (including detonations, ...
, which was detected heading for the east coast of the Philippines, with
Basco in its likely path. The
Hong Kong Observatory
The Hong Kong Observatory is a weather forecast agency of the government of Hong Kong. The Observatory forecasts the weather and issues warnings on weather-related hazards. It also monitors and makes assessments on radiation levels in Hong ...
also issued tsunami information bulletin, while indicating Hong Kong would likely be unaffected.
Disruption in communications
The earthquake catastrophically disrupted Internet services in Asia, affecting many Asian countries. Financial transactions, particularly in the
foreign exchange market
The foreign exchange market (forex, FX, or currency market) is a global decentralized or over-the-counter (OTC) market for the trading of currencies. This market determines foreign exchange rates for every currency. By trading volume, ...
were seriously affected as well. The aforementioned disruption was caused by damage to several
submarine communications cable
A submarine communications cable is a cable laid on the seabed between land-based stations to carry telecommunication signals across stretches of ocean and sea. The first submarine communications cables were laid beginning in the 1850s and car ...
s.
Taiwan
Chunghwa Telecom
Chunghwa Telecom (), officially Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd., is the largest integrated Telecommunications company, telecommunications service provider in Taiwan, providing Public switched telephone network, PSTN, mobile phone, and broadband se ...
stated that an undersea cable off the southern coast had been damaged, interrupting communications (including
IDD
Idd is a parish and former municipality in Halden, Østfold county, Norway.
The parish of ''Id'' was established as a municipality January 1, 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). The rural municipality was (together with Berg) merged with the city o ...
, telephone services and internet services) of Taiwan with China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and the United States. The international calling capacity was reduced to 40%.
China
China Telecom
China Telecom Corporation Limited (CT) is a Chinese telecommunications company. It is one of the publicly traded red chip companies of the state-owned China Telecommunications Corporation.
The company's H shares have been traded on the Sto ...
reported that several international submarine communications cables had been broken, including:
*
CUCN and
SMW3
SEA-ME-WE3 or South-East Asia - Middle East - Western Europe 3 was an optical submarine telecommunications cable linking those regions and is the longest in the world. Completed in late 2000, it is led by France Telecom and China Telecom, and is ...
, which was damaged on 26 December 2006 20:25
UTC+8
UTC+08:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +08:00.
It is the most populous time zone in the world, as well as a possible candidate for ASEAN Common Time, mainly due to China's large population, with an estimated population ...
approximately 9.7 km away from landing point in Fangshan,
Pingtung County
Pingtung () is a County (Taiwan), county located in southern Taiwan. It has a warm tropical monsoon climate and is known for its agriculture and tourism. Kenting National Park, Taiwan's oldest national park, is located in the county. The county ...
, Taiwan;
*
APCN 2
APCN 2 or Asia-Pacific Cable Network 2 is a submarine telecommunications cable linking several countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
It has landing points in:
* Chongming, Shanghai, China
*Shantou, Guangdong Province, China
*Lantau Island, Islan ...
S3, which was damaged on 27 December 2006 02:00
UTC+8
UTC+08:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +08:00.
It is the most populous time zone in the world, as well as a possible candidate for ASEAN Common Time, mainly due to China's large population, with an estimated population ...
approximately 2,100 km away from landing point in
Chongming, Shanghai, China;
*
APCN 2
APCN 2 or Asia-Pacific Cable Network 2 is a submarine telecommunications cable linking several countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
It has landing points in:
* Chongming, Shanghai, China
*Shantou, Guangdong Province, China
*Lantau Island, Islan ...
S7, which was damaged on 27 December 2006 00:06
UTC+8
UTC+08:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +08:00.
It is the most populous time zone in the world, as well as a possible candidate for ASEAN Common Time, mainly due to China's large population, with an estimated population ...
approximately 904 km away from landing point in
Tanshui
Tamsui District () is a seaside District (Taiwan), district in New Taipei City, Taiwan adjacent to the Tamsui River and overlooking the Taiwan Strait. The name of the district means "fresh water" in Chinese. Although modest in size (population ...
,
Taipei County
New Taipei City is a Special municipality (Taiwan), special municipality located in regions of Taiwan, northern Taiwan. The city is home to an estimated population of 4,004,367 as of January 2023, making it the most populous city in Taiwan, a ...
(now New Taipei City), Taiwan;
*
FLAG Europe Asia, the segment between Hong Kong and Shanghai was severed on 27 December 2006 04:56
UTC+8
UTC+08:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +08:00.
It is the most populous time zone in the world, as well as a possible candidate for ASEAN Common Time, mainly due to China's large population, with an estimated population ...
;
*
FLAG North Asia Loop, the segment between Hong Kong and
Pusan
Busan (), officially Busan Metropolitan City, is South Korea's second most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.3 million as of 2024. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economic, cultural and educational center of southe ...
was severed on 26 December 2006 20:43
UTC+8
UTC+08:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +08:00.
It is the most populous time zone in the world, as well as a possible candidate for ASEAN Common Time, mainly due to China's large population, with an estimated population ...
, severely damaging the communications within the Asia-Pacific region and with the United States and Europe.
[Asia communications hit by quake](_blank)
BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...
, 2006-12-27
IDD
Idd is a parish and former municipality in Halden, Østfold county, Norway.
The parish of ''Id'' was established as a municipality January 1, 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). The rural municipality was (together with Berg) merged with the city o ...
, telephone services, and internet services of China with North America were seriously affected by the earthquake. However,
China Telecom
China Telecom Corporation Limited (CT) is a Chinese telecommunications company. It is one of the publicly traded red chip companies of the state-owned China Telecommunications Corporation.
The company's H shares have been traded on the Sto ...
announced on December 31 that
IDD
Idd is a parish and former municipality in Halden, Østfold county, Norway.
The parish of ''Id'' was established as a municipality January 1, 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). The rural municipality was (together with Berg) merged with the city o ...
services had resumed to normal levels. Internet services had resumed to 70% of normal levels. As the undersea cables to North America were seriously damaged by the earthquake, the quality of internet services depended on the progress of
repair work.
Hong Kong
Starting from dawn on 27 December, connections between foreign websites/servers and Hong Kong internet users kept failing. Wikipedia, search engines, online messengers like
ICQ
ICQ was a cross-platform instant messaging (IM) and VoIP client founded in June 1996 by Yair Goldfinger, Sefi Vigiser, Amnon Amir, Arik Vardi, and Arik's father, Yossi Vardi. The name ICQ derives from the English phrase "I Seek You". Originally ...
and
MSN Messenger
MSN Messenger (also known colloquially simply as MSN), later rebranded as Windows Live Messenger, was a Cross-platform software, cross-platform instant messaging client, instant-messaging client developed by Microsoft. It connected to the now-di ...
, and portals like
Google
Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...
,
Yahoo
Yahoo (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web portal that provides the search engine Yahoo Search and related services including My Yahoo, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, y!entertainment, yahoo!life, an ...
and
MSN
MSN is a web portal and related collection of Internet services and apps provided by Microsoft. The main webpage provides news, weather, sports, finance and other content curated from hundreds of different sources that Microsoft has partnere ...
were largely unavailable. Access to
Chinese Wikipedia
The Chinese Wikipedia () is the written vernacular Chinese edition of Wikipedia. It was created on 11 May 2001. It is one of multiple projects supported by the Wikimedia Foundation.
The Chinese Wikipedia currently has articles, registered ...
was also cut by the earthquake, as the servers are located in South Korea. Websites located in mainland China, such as xinhuanet.com, the website of
Xinhua News Agency
Xinhua News Agency (English pronunciation: ),J. C. Wells: Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, 3rd ed., for both British and American English or New China News Agency, is the official state news agency of the People's Republic of China. It is a ...
, were also inaccessible.
On 29 December, the
Office of the Telecommunications Authority
The Office of the Communications Authority (OFCA) is an executive arm of the Communications Authority in Hong Kong. It is the body responsible for telecommunications regulation (through the Regulatory Affairs Branch), antitrust enforcement (thr ...
(OFTA) of the
Hong Kong Government
The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (commonly known as the Hong Kong Government or HKSAR Government) is the Executive (government), executive authorities of Hong Kong. It was established on 1 July 1997, following the ...
announced that
IDD
Idd is a parish and former municipality in Halden, Østfold county, Norway.
The parish of ''Id'' was established as a municipality January 1, 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). The rural municipality was (together with Berg) merged with the city o ...
and
roaming
Roaming is a wireless
Wireless communication (or just wireless, when the context allows) is the transfer of information (''telecommunication'') between two or more points without the use of an electrical conductor, optical fiber or oth ...
calls to Taiwan had resumed to 50% of the normal level.
IDD
Idd is a parish and former municipality in Halden, Østfold county, Norway.
The parish of ''Id'' was established as a municipality January 1, 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). The rural municipality was (together with Berg) merged with the city o ...
and
roaming
Roaming is a wireless
Wireless communication (or just wireless, when the context allows) is the transfer of information (''telecommunication'') between two or more points without the use of an electrical conductor, optical fiber or oth ...
calls to other
Asian countries
This is a list of sovereign states and dependent territories in Asia. It includes sovereign state, fully recognized states, states with limited but substantial international recognition, ''de facto'' states with little or no international recogn ...
(e.g. South Korea) were slower than normal. Calls from Hong Kong to overseas using
calling cards experienced the same situation as the
IDD
Idd is a parish and former municipality in Halden, Østfold county, Norway.
The parish of ''Id'' was established as a municipality January 1, 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). The rural municipality was (together with Berg) merged with the city o ...
and
roaming
Roaming is a wireless
Wireless communication (or just wireless, when the context allows) is the transfer of information (''telecommunication'') between two or more points without the use of an electrical conductor, optical fiber or oth ...
calls. However, calling from overseas to Hong Kong using
calling cards still faced serious congestion.
For internet services, as of December 29, connections to websites in the U.S., South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan were still very slow. However, the situation was improving; sites which could not be accessed before (e.g. Wikipedia,
Google
Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...
, YouTube) were available at extremely slow speeds. Among the
internet service provider
An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides a myriad of services related to accessing, using, managing, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, no ...
s in Hong Kong,
PCCW
PCCW Limited (formerly known as Pacific Century CyberWorks Limited) is a Hong Kong–based information and communication technology (ICT) and telecommunications company.
The company is the major owner of telecommunications company HKT Limited, ...
's
Netvigator
Netvigator is a residential Internet service provider in Hong Kong, operated as a brand of Hong Kong Telecom, a subsidiary of PCCW. The company did offer iTV, an interactive movie television network that allowed users to watch movies on their T ...
was the slowest to resume enough bandwidth for their users. Therefore, as a temporary remedy, many internet users in Hong Kong used
proxy servers in Australia, Thailand, Spain, and even the
UAE
The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a federal elective monarchy made up of seven emirates, with Abu Dhabi serving as i ...
and Kuwait to access foreign websites.
As of 31 December, the situation of internet connection had improved. Although sites that were previously unavailable became accessible, connection speeds were still slower than normal.
Philippines
The earthquake cut
PLDT
PLDT, Inc., formerly known as the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (), is a Philippine telecommunications, internet and digital service company.
PLDT is one of the Philippine's major telecommunications providers, along with Globe Te ...
's phone service capacity and connectivity by around 40 percent. The two largest Philippine mobile communications companies (
Smart Communications
Smart Communications Inc., commonly referred to as Smart, is a wholly owned wireless communications and digital services subsidiary of PLDT Inc., a telecommunications and digital services provider based in the Philippines. As of November ...
and
Globe Telecom
Globe Telecom, Inc., commonly shortened as Globe, is a major provider of telecommunications services in the Philippines. The company operates one of the largest mobile, fixed-line and broadband networks in the Philippines. As of November 2023, ...
) also reported some international connectivity problems. Some carriers were able to re-route their service.
Call center
A call centre (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth spelling) or call center (American English, American spelling; American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, see spelling differences) is a managed capability th ...
s and other
outsourced business processes that have become a major industry in the Philippines feared that the
cable
Cable may refer to:
Mechanical
* Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof
* Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...
damage might hamper their operations dramatically; only two centers were totally shut down due to the problems.
United States
In the United States, several networks and bloggers experienced a noticeable reduction in the volume of
spam
Spam most often refers to:
* Spam (food), a consumer brand product of canned processed pork of the Hormel Foods Corporation
* Spamming, unsolicited or undesired electronic messages
** Email spam, unsolicited, undesired, or illegal email messages
...
received after the earthquake. A blogger noted that "one large network in North America saw their mail from Korea drop by 90% and from China by 99%."
Other areas
Korea Telecom
KT Corporation (Hangul: 주식회사 케이티), formerly Korea Telecom, is a South Korean telecommunications company, mobile network operator (MNO) and mobile virtual network operator (MVNO). KT is the third-largest wireless carrier in South ...
,
Malaysia's
Telekom Malaysia
Telekom Malaysia Berhad or simply TM is a Malaysian telecommunications company that was founded in 1984. Beginning as the national telecommunications company for fixed line, radio, and television broadcasting services, it has evolved to become ...
and
Jaring, as well as the
Communications Authority of Thailand
CAT Telecom Public Company Limited (Communication Authority of Thailand : การสื่อสารแห่งประเทศไทย) So, then as known as CAT Telecom Plc.
() is the state-owned company that runs Thailand’s interna ...
,
[CAT Telecom to invest in optical networks in the Indian Ocean](_blank)
'' Thai News Agency'', 2006-12-30 Singapore's
StarHub
StarHub Limited, commonly known as StarHub, is a Singaporean multinational telecommunications conglomerate and one of the major Telecommunications in Singapore, telcos operating in the country. Founded in 1998, it is listed on the Singapore Ex ...
and
SingTel
Singapore Telecommunications Limited, trading as Singtel, is a Singaporean telecommunications conglomerate, the country's principal fixed-line operator and one of the four major mobile network operators operating in the country.
Overview
T ...
and Brunei's Telbru also reported disruption to most Internet services. In Singapore,
search engine
A search engine is a software system that provides hyperlinks to web pages, and other relevant information on World Wide Web, the Web in response to a user's web query, query. The user enters a query in a web browser or a mobile app, and the sea ...
s and portals like
Google
Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...
,
Yahoo
Yahoo (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web portal that provides the search engine Yahoo Search and related services including My Yahoo, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, y!entertainment, yahoo!life, an ...
,
MSN
MSN is a web portal and related collection of Internet services and apps provided by Microsoft. The main webpage provides news, weather, sports, finance and other content curated from hundreds of different sources that Microsoft has partnere ...
and most websites were virtually unreachable. In Indonesia, Google was not accessible, but Yahoo! and Wikipedia could still be used, though the network connection speed was very slow. Sri Lankan internet services were likewise affected. In Malaysia, there were problems with popular Internet services such as
Gmail
Gmail is the email service provided by Google. it had 1.5 billion active user (computing), users worldwide, making it the largest email service in the world. It also provides a webmail interface, accessible through a web browser, and is also ...
and
Yahoo News
Yahoo News (stylized as Yahoo! News) is a news website that originated as an internet-based news aggregator by Yahoo. The site was created by Yahoo software engineer Brad Clawsie in August 1996. Articles originally came from news services such ...
; however, the situation was reported to be improving on 29 December.
Repair work
According to the Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA) of
Hong Kong Government
The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (commonly known as the Hong Kong Government or HKSAR Government) is the Executive (government), executive authorities of Hong Kong. It was established on 1 July 1997, following the ...
, among the five cable ships deployed, two arrived at the scene. However, one of the two ships experienced a major fault on December 30 afternoon and was under urgent repair in
Kaohsiung
Kaohsiung, officially Kaohsiung City, is a special municipality located in southern Taiwan. It ranges from the coastal urban center to the rural Yushan Range with an area of . Kaohsiung City has a population of approximately 2.73 million p ...
, Taiwan. The repair for the ship was estimated to take about a week. Therefore, the repair for the cables had to be postponed. It was estimated that the first part of the repair of one of the submarine cables would be completed around 16 January 2007. For the other damaged cables, survey and assessment were being arranged and repair of most of the cables is expected to be completed progressively by the end of January 2007.
IDD
Idd is a parish and former municipality in Halden, Østfold county, Norway.
The parish of ''Id'' was established as a municipality January 1, 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). The rural municipality was (together with Berg) merged with the city o ...
services and disrupted internet service in Southeast Asia were mostly restored pending the repairs and rerouted traffic.
Before the completion of the cable repair works, however, some countries had already found alternative methods to restore internet access. For example, by 3 January 2007, Singapore's
SingTel
Singapore Telecommunications Limited, trading as Singtel, is a Singaporean telecommunications conglomerate, the country's principal fixed-line operator and one of the four major mobile network operators operating in the country.
Overview
T ...
had already fully restored the Internet access provided by them. SingNet, SingTel's subsidiary, which handles
ISP
An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides a myriad of services related to accessing, using, managing, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non ...
services, released an announcement on its homepage, mentioning that "internet access to services such as gaming and video downloading may experience some delays". Whether or not this is related to the earthquake is unknown, albeit likely.
According to ''
China Daily
''China Daily'' ( zh, s=中国日报, p=Zhōngguó Rìbào) is an English-language daily newspaper owned by the Central Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party.
Overview
''China Daily'' has the widest print circulation of any ...
'' on 16 January, the repair work might be completed by the end of January, yet heavy winds in the
Bashi Channel
The Bashi Channel () is a waterway between Mavulis Island of the Batanes Islands, Philippines and Orchid Island of Taiwan. It is a part of the Luzon Strait, with the Pacific Ocean to the east, and is between the East China Sea and the South Chin ...
stirred up 10-to-12-meter waves, which made it impossible to resume work.
["Undersea cable repairs could take 2 more weeks" (Page 1) & "A time-tested solution for Asia's damaged Internet cables" (Page 12), '']China Daily
''China Daily'' ( zh, s=中国日报, p=Zhōngguó Rìbào) is an English-language daily newspaper owned by the Central Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party.
Overview
''China Daily'' has the widest print circulation of any ...
'', 2007-01-16
See also
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List of earthquakes in 2006
Earthquakes in 2006 resulted in about 6,602 fatalities. The 2006 Yogyakarta earthquake was the deadliest with 5,749 fatalities. The 2006 Kuril Islands earthquake was the largest in 2006 at 8.3 on the moment magnitude scale. The 2006 Pangandaran ...
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List of earthquakes in Taiwan
A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, but ...
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Manila Trench
The Manila Trench is an oceanic trench in the Pacific Ocean, located west of the islands of Luzon and Mindoro in the Philippines. The trench reaches a depth of about , in contrast with the average depth of the South China Sea of about . It i ...
References
External links
M7.1 – Taiwan region–
United States Geological Survey
The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The agency was founded on Mar ...
M6.9 – Taiwan region–
United States Geological Survey
The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The agency was founded on Mar ...
Strong quake strikes off Taiwan–
BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hengchun Earthquake, 2006
2006 disasters in Taiwan
2006 earthquakes
2006 in Taiwan
Hengchun
Hengchun is a Township (Taiwan), township located on the southern tip of the Hengchun Peninsula in Pingtung County, Taiwan. It is the southernmost township in Taiwan. Hengchun is also the only urban township in the southern part of Pingtung Coun ...
December 2006 in Asia
2006 Hengchun
Tsunamis in Taiwan