The 1972 Ruisui earthquake (also known as the 1972 Juisui earthquake) occurred on April 24 at 17:57 local time. The magnitude of this earthquake was given as Ms 7.2[1] by the United States Geological Survey and ML 6.9 by the Central Weather Bureau of Taiwan.[2] The epicenter was located near Ruisui Township, Hualien County, Taiwan. The intensity was shindo 4 in Taipei and Hualien.[3] Five people were reported dead. The Ruisui Bridge (Chinese: 瑞穗大橋) was destroyed.[4] The water treatment plant in Ruisui was damaged.
This earthquake was caused by the Juisui Fault with a vertical movement of 70 centimeters (28 in).[5][6] The Juisui Fault is a segment of the 150 kilometers (93 mi) long Longitudinal Valley Fault, which is a left-lateral fault with a reverse component.[7] The boundary between the Eurasian plate and the Philippine Plate lies along the Longitudinal Valley Fault.[8]
^Hickman, John B; Wiltschko, David V; Hung, Jih-Hao; Fang, Peng; Bock, Yehuda (2002), "Structure and evolution of the active fold-and-thrust belt of southwestern Taiwan from Global Positioning System analysis", Special Paper 358: Geology and geophysics of an arc-continent collision, Taiwan, vol. 358, p. 75, doi:10.1130/0-8137-2358-2.75, ISBN978-0-8137-2358-7
