The Southeast Asian archipelago is one of the most seismically vulnerable countries on the planet, often experiencing more than 1,000 quakes a year
A magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck in waters near the island of Cebu in the central Philippines late on Tuesday, the deadliest to hit the country since 2013, with more than 69 people reported dead and dozens injured.
The earthquake was centred about 17 kilometres northeast of Bogo city in Cebu province, and was caused by movement in a local fault. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said it expected damage and aftershocks.
Power went out in the Cebu province town of Daanbantayan, where the stone church is located. The extent of the damage to the church was not immediately known.
The Philippines, one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries, is often hit by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions due to its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of seismic faults around the ocean. The archipelago is also lashed by about 20 typhoons and storms each year.
The Southeast Asian archipelago is one of the most seismically vulnerable countries on the planet, often experiencing more than 1,000 quakes a year.
EARTHQUAKE LIST
According to Earthquake List, which compiles data from global earthquake monitoring agencies the U.S. Geological Survey and the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre, in the past decade the Philippines has experienced an average of 826 quakes a year, amounting to about one every 10 hours.
That compares to 2,053 quakes per year in Indonesia, 1,777 in Mexico, 1,025 in Japan and 734 in Papua New Guinea. The United States saw an average of 176 per year over the period, according to Earthquake List.
PACIFIC ‘RING OF FIRE’
The Philippines lies on a complicated tectonic subsystem that forms part of the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, an earthquake-prone belt of volcanoes stretching from South America to the Russian Far East. It is also vulnerable to tsunamis generated by earthquakes in other parts of the western Pacific.
The Cebu quake event was a relatively shallow “strike-slip” event in which two plates brush up against each other at different speeds.
DEADLIEST PHILIPPINES QUAKES
The deadliest recorded earthquake in the Philippines in recent decades took place at Moro Gulf in 1976, measuring 8.0 and causing at least 5,000 deaths.
A quake of a magnitude 7.8 also hit the densely populated island of Luzon in 1990, killing more than 1,600 people and causing lasting infrastructure damage.
PHILIPPINES QUAKE LIST
Following is a list of the biggest and deadliest earthquakes to hit the Philippines in recent years:
August 2024 – Caraga earthquake, opens new tab (magnitude 6.8). No casualties, but at a depth of only 20 miles (32 km), nearly 30,000 people were affected and 193 homes damaged.
November 2023 – Mindanao earthquake (magnitude 6.7). Killed 11 people and 730 reported injured. Another quake struck Mindanao a month later, with a more powerful magnitude of 7.6, killing three and injuring dozens more.
July 2022 – Luzon earthquake (magnitude 7.1). Eleven people killed, 615 injured in a quake that was felt in the capital Manila.
December 2019 – Davao earthquake (magnitude 6.8) Thirteen people were killed and 210 injured.
October 2019 – Cotabato earthquakes, magnitudes 6.4 to 6.6. Death toll of 31, 778 injured.
April 2019 – Luzon earthquake (magnitude 6.1). Eighteen people dead, 256 injured.
October 2013 – Bohol earthquake (magnitude 7.2). Death toll 222, 976 injured.