Magnitude 2 earthquake strikes Hong Kong at 1.22pm, with more than 100 residents reporting mild shaking
- Earthquake hits Lantau Island near Mui Wo at 1.22pm, forecaster says
- More than 100 residents report experiencing ‘minor shaking’ that lasted for few seconds
A magnitude 2 earthquake struck Hong Kong on Monday, with more than 100 residents reporting mild shaking, the ninth one whose epicentre was located in the city in at least 45 years.
The Hong Kong Observatory said the earthquake, which was at a depth of 10km (6.2 miles), hit Lantau Island near Mui Wo at 1.22pm.
More than 100 local residents reported experiencing what they described as “minor shaking” that lasted for a few seconds, according to the observatory.
The weather forecaster said initial estimates gave the vibrations a local intensity of three on the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale, under which mild shaking can be felt indoors. These resemble vibrations caused by passing light trucks.
Mui Wo resident Gina Kirsten, 58, said she felt one “muted, second-long boom” while working on the first floor of her village house.
“I thought it was an underground explosion or that from a mountain,” said the leadership consultant who has lived in the area for 26 years. “I felt a vibration coming up from beneath and travelling upwards through the house, but nothing shook.”
She later learned it was an earthquake from a neighbourhood WhatsApp group. “It gave me no panic,” she added.
Football coach Francis Fernandes, 27, said he was having lunch at home when “one massive hit” sent his two dogs to “spike crazily” and barked for 20 to 30 seconds.
“Then, everything went calm again,” he said. “So, I knew it wasn’t thunder, because usually my dogs would go on for three, four minutes.”
He said he did not know it was an earthquake until he looked up the Observatory’s website an hour later.
In March last year, more than 100 city residents reported being jolted after a magnitude 4.5 quake rocked Heyuan in Guangdong province.
That quake’s epicentre was located about 21km west-northwest of Heyuan, with the intensity estimated to be four on the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale. At that level, hanging objects swing, and doors, windows and plates rattle.
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The Observatory started recording earthquakes in 1905. On average, two earthquakes are felt in Hong Kong each year.
Another magnitude 4.1 earthquake struck off the coast of southeastern China on March 14, 2022, at 2.30am. A record 8,000 people in Hong Kong reported feeling shaking at the time.
Leung Wing-mo, former assistant director of the Observatory, said earthquakes with an epicentre in Hong Kong were rare and did not pose a high risk to livelihood.
“Hong Kong is neither located at the rim of tectonic plates nor active faults, so it has almost the lowest risk of earthquakes,” he said.
“Instead, Hongkongers should increase their disaster preparedness before travelling to some of their favourite destinations, such as Japan or Taiwan, where earthquakes are more frequent,” Leung added.
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In 1979, the Observatory set up a network of three seismometers and has since detected eight earthquakes with epicentres located in Hong Kong.
The first two were recorded in waters east of Lantau Island in 1982, while the third was logged in Mai Po a year later.
Three more quakes were registered in the same waters off Lautau in 1995. Another one took place near Tai Lam Chung Reservoir in 2014, with another hitting Cheung Chau in 2019.
According to the Observatory, Hong Kong is not located on the circum-Pacific seismic belt, nicknamed the Ring of Fire, so the probability of a major earthquake is very low.
The belt stretches from New Zealand through the equator in Indonesia’s Sumatra to southern Alaska into California, Mexico and Chile.
The only recorded quake that has caused damage locally took place in 1918 near Shantou, Guangdong.
