Two strong earthquakes hit the same region in the southern Philippines on Friday, a few hours away from each other, the first earthquake with a magnitude of 7.4 causing the death of at least six people, triggering land and causing the coastal areas as a result of a tsunami alert, reports News.ro.
The second earthquake had a magnitude of 6.9 and caused the authorities to issue a local Tsunami warning again.
This new earthquake was caused by the movement of the same fault, the Philippine fossa, at a depth of 10 kilometers off the coast of Manay in the province of Oriental Davao, said Teresito Bacolcol, the head of the Philippine Institute of Seismology and Vulcanology. “The second is a separate earthquake, which we call double earthquake,” Bacolcol told Associated Press. “Both occurred in the same area, but they have different magnitudes and epicly,” he said.
Bacolcol and other authorities have expressed their fear that the second earthquake, nocturnal, could further weaken or collapse the structures already affected by the first.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who is facing the latest natural catastrophe after another fatal earthquake and two consecutive storms, said that the potential damages are evaluated and that rescue teams and help operations are being prepared, which will be mobilized when it is safe to do so.
The disaster caused by the first earthquake
The first earthquake had the epicenter at sea, about 43 kilometers east of the city of Manay, and was caused by movements in the Philippine fossa, at a depth of 23 kilometers, local seismologists said.
At least six people died, including two patients who died due to heart attacks at a hospital during the first earthquake and a resident who was hit by remains in the city of Mati in Oriental Davao, said for the Ednar Dayanghirang, Regional Director of the Government Bureau for Civil Defense.
Two villagers died and several others were injured, but they were rescued by the army troops and civilian volunteers in a landslide caused by the first earthquake in an isolated village in Davao de Oro province, near Davao Oriental, Dayanghirang said.
Another inhabitant died from the first earthquake in the Davao port city, officials responsible for disasters alleviated, without providing other details. They added that the injured inhabitants in the city are in the order of hundreds.
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Bernardo Rafaelito Alejandro IV, deputy administrator of the Civil Defense Bureau, said that several buildings have suffered cracks in the walls, including an international airport in the city of Davao, but it remained operational, without any flight.
In Governor Georoso, a city about 100 kilometers south of Manay, school courses of all levels have been suspended. The children were also evacuated from the schools in the city of Davao, which has about 5.4 million inhabitants and is the largest city near the epicenter, about 250 kilometers west of the province of Oriental Davao.
Tsunami warnings
The Pacific Tsunami warning center, based in Honolulu, said that small waves were detected on the coasts of the Philippines and Indonesia before the threat passed, about two hours after the first earthquake. The center said the small fluctuations of the sea could continue.
The tsunami warning that triggered evacuations in six coastal provinces near Davao Oriental was subsequently high, without detecting major waves, Bocolcol said.
The Philippines is still restored after the earthquake on September 30, with a magnitude of 6.9, which caused the death of at least 74 people and left thousands of people in the Cebu Central Province, especially in the city of Bogo and in the surrounding localities.
The archipelago is also hit by about 20 typhoon and storms every year, which makes the disaster response a major government and volunteer groups.
Also on Friday, an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.0 hit the coasts of Papua New Guinea. The United States Geological Service said that the epicenter was in the Bismarck Sea, 414 kilometers northeast of Lae, the second city as a population in this island nation in the South Pacific. A LAE police official, Mary Jane Huafilong, said no damage was reported.
