Taiwan's meteorological authorities on Sunday began construction of its first earthquake observatory in the seas off Taiwan' s east coast to improve the island' s early warning ability for earthquakes and tsunamis.

The authorities said that the new observatory, located about 45 kilometers northeast of the island, could send alarms 10 seconds before a major quake reaches the island and is also capable of issuing warnings 10 minutes before a tsunami strikes the island.

Kuo Kai-wen, director of the authorities' seismology center, said the center would immediately notify people living in coastal areas after receiving strong jolts. Also, the cable that links the maritime observatory to the island is to be buried 1.5 meter under the seabed to avoid being destroyed by vessels.

Currently, Taiwan has installed a network of more than 680 free-field seismograph stations throughout the island which report about 18,000 earthquakes each year. The new observatory will warn of an additional 9,000 quakes and even is capable of detecting submerged volcanoes off Okinawa.

An earthquake measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale occurred off the coast of Taiwan's Taitung county at 4:00 p.m. (Beijing Time) Sunday, according to the China Earthquake Network Center.

The epicenter, at a depth of 30 km, was monitored at 22.4 degrees north latitude and 121.4 degrees east longitude, the center said in a statement.

The new maritime station will be completed in June and become operational in October.