A 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck the northern Philippines on Wednesday, the US Geological Survey said, shattering windows of buildings at the epicenter and shaking high-rise buildings more than 300 kilometers away in the capital Manila.
The shallow but powerful quake struck the mountainous and sparsely populated province of Abra on the main island of Luzon at 8:43 a.m. (0043 GMT), the USGS said after initially measuring the quake at a magnitude of 6.8.
Shallow earthquakes tend to deal more damage than deeper ones.
In Dolores, which felt the full force of the quake, terrified people ran from their buildings and windows of the local market were smashed, Police Major Edwin Sergio told AFP.
“The quake was very strong,” Sergio said, adding that there were minor cracks in the police station building.
“Vegetables and fruit sold at the market were also messed up after the tables were overturned.”
A video posted to Facebook and confirmed by AFP showed cracks in the tarmac road and soil in the nearby town of Bangued, but there was no visible damage to shops or homes.
Several people were injured in Bangued and taken to hospital for treatment, police chief Major Nazareno Emia told AFP.
University student Mira Zapata was at her home in the city of San Juan when she experienced “really strong shaking.”
“We started screaming and stormed outside,” she said as the aftershocks continued.
“Our house is fine, but the houses down the hill were damaged.”
– ring of fire –
The Philippines is regularly rocked by earthquakes due to its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of intense seismic activity that stretches from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific Basin.
The earthquake on Wednesday was the strongest in years in the Philippines.
In October 2013, a 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck the island of Bohol in the central Philippines, killing over 200 people and triggering landslides.
Old churches in the birthplace of Catholicism in the Philippines were badly damaged. Nearly 400,000 were displaced and tens of thousands of homes were damaged.
The powerful tremor changed the island’s landscape and a “earth breach” pushed up a section of ground by up to three meters, creating a rock face over the epicenter.
In 1990, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake in the northern Philippines caused a 100-kilometer rupture in the ground.
The death toll was estimated at over 1,200 and caused extensive damage to buildings in Manila.
The National Institute of Volcanology and Seismology regularly conducts seismic drills and simulates scenarios in the country’s active fault lines.
During severe earthquakes, the agency said, people would find it difficult to stand on the upper floors, trees could shake severely, heavy objects and furniture could fall, and large church bells could ring.
#magnitude #earthquake #rocks #northern #Philippines #USGS
