Chia Yee-ping, a professor with the Department of Geosciences at National Taiwan University, says that most earthquakes are caused by the movement of tectonic plates compressing or dilating faults. When a fault slips or ruptures, the stresses on a given area change, altering local water pressure and, consequently, groundwater levels.
台大地質系教授賈儀平分析，地震主要是因板塊運動擠壓或拉張某些斷層所造成，斷層一旦錯動、甚至斷裂，它的周圍一定區域的應力都會改變，連帶改變當地水壓而牽動地下水位，這就是所謂的「同震地下水位變化」。