6.3-magnitude offshore earthquake strikes Southern Philippines

A 6.3-magnitude offshore earthquake struck Davao Occidental in the southern Philippines on Thursday, the second major quake in two days. Authorities reported no tsunami threat. The Philippines remains vulnerable to seismic activity due to its location along the Pacific Ring of Fire

Manila:  The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said a 6.3-magnitude offshore earthquake struck Davao Occidental province in the southern Philippines early Thursday morning. The institute said the tectonic earthquake occurred at 5:41 a.m. local time at a depth of 10 km, with the epicentre 99 km southwest of the coast of Balut Island, reports Xinhua news agency.

This is the second such earthquake since Wednesday. Earlier on Wednesday, a 6.4-magnitude offshore earthquake struck Davao Occidental province, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said.

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The institute said the tectonic earthquake occurred at 12:14 p.m. local time at a depth of 13 km. It said there is no tsunami threat to the Philippines from the earthquake.

Meanwhile, an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.3 jolted Mindanao, Philippines at 04:14:09 GMT on Wednesday, the GFZ German Research Center for Geosciences said. The epicentre, with a depth of 10.0 km, was initially determined to be at 5.37 degrees north latitude and 125.45 degrees east longitude. The Philippines, an archipelagic nation in Southeast Asia, is frequently affected by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and tsunamis due to its location along the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” a vast horseshoe-shaped zone of intense seismic and volcanic activity surrounding the Pacific Ocean.

These recent quakes follow a devastating tremor on June 8 that caused buildings to collapse, triggered landslides, and resulted in at least 76 fatalities on the nearby island of Mindanao. That earthquake shifted the Cotabato trench and raised the seabed by as much as two meters (6.6 feet), damaging coral reefs and harming marine ecosystems.