An earthquake measuring 6 on the Richter scale struck the southern Philippines today, with no fatalities, but with local authorities warning of possible property damage and aftershocks.
The shallow earthquake occurred around 2:00 p.m. (6:00 a.m. in Lisbon), a few kilometers from the municipality of Maragusan, in the mountainous province of Davao de Oro, on the island of Mindanao, in the south of the archipelago, according to to the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Geological Survey, which records seismic activity around the world.
A spokesman for the Maragusan disaster management agency told Agence France Presse that the agency is still verifying the veracity of reports of a landslide on a highway.
“We have not received information about other damage or casualties, but we are checking the villages” around Maragusan, the official said.
“Objects shake in the office [da agência]but there was no damage,” he added.
The province of Davao de Oro was also hit by another magnitude 6 earthquake in early February, 13 kilometers deep, which did not cause significant damage.
The Philippines is located on the so-called “ring of fire” in the Pacific, an area of great seismic and volcanic activity, where thousands of earthquakes are recorded each year, most of them of weak to moderate magnitude, and with about 120 active volcanoes.
A magnitude 7.7 earthquake killed almost 2,000 people in the north of the archipelago in 1990.
Source: TSF
