By Kim Se-jeong
It is unlikely that a strong earthquake will hit the Korean Peninsula in the near future, but that doesn’t mean the country is completely safe, experts cautioned Monday.
A magnitude 7.8 earthquake in Nepal that killed over 3,000 people is prompting officials here to inspect Korea’s anti-quake measures.
An official at the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) said, “Korea is not on the edge of a tectonic plate that collides with another landmass. But we can’t say it is not vulnerable to a deadly earthquake.” The Korean Peninsula is on the Eurasian tectonic plate.
KMA data shows the peninsula experienced 13 earthquakes with a magnitude of 2 or more last year alone. In the 1990s, the number of such earthquakes was 26 but that number increased to 44 in the 2000s. Between 2010 and 2014, 58 earthquakes have been reported here.
Prof. Hong Tae-kyung at Yonsei University echoed the KMA official, citing historical evidence.
“When you look at records about earthquakes from the Joseon Kingdom, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7 hit the peninsula. Although Korea has not seen any quake of that magnitude in the last 50 years, that doesn’t mean we will be safe forever,” Hong said.
Since Korea’s earthquake observation began in 1978, no earthquake with a magnitude of over 7 has occurred. The strongest earthquake was the 5.3 one that hit Euiju in North Korea in 1980. In the year observations began, Hongseong, South Chungcheong Province was hit by a 5.2 earthquake. Four more earthquakes with a magnitude of 5 or more have happened on the peninsula up until last year, but no one has been killed. However, Hong says the 50 years of data is too short a time period to properly study earthquakes.
According to KMA’s book on the history of earthquakes on the Korean Peninsula, deadly earthquakes occurred. For example, one on July 19, 1036 “made doors and stairs at Bulguk Temple (in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsan Province) compound collapse.”
Prof. Hong also said earthquakes will be active around the world in the next 10 years.
“Earthquakes were frequent in the 1950s and ‘60s. They were almost none in the 1970s until the 1990s. But starting from the 2004 earthquake and tsunami in Southeast Asia, quakes have been more frequent, such as the one in Sichuan Province in China and also in Japan in 2011,” he said. “I believe the earth will see more deadly earthquakes over the next 10 years.”