A powerful 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck the island of Mindanao, in the south of the Philippines, this Saturday, December 2, announced the American Institute of Geophysics (USGS). While no injuries or damage have yet been reported, Philippine authorities have warned of a “destructive tsunami” and called on the population of the coastal provinces of Surigao South and Davao Oriental to move inland or higher terrain.
Tsunami “is expected with waves whose height presents a threat to lives”, alerted the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology on X (formerly Twitter). Evacuation orders were also given to some areas of southwest Japan, near the coast, where waves of one meter or more are expected.
The earthquake occurred at a depth of 32 km at 10:37 p.m. local time (3:37 p.m. French time) at a distance of about 21 km northeast of Hinatuan, the USGS said. A 6.7 magnitude earthquake already struck the Mindanao region on November 17, killing at least nine people. The island is the second largest in the Philippine archipelago, both in area and population – it has a population of 26,252,442, or 24.08% of the country’s population.
Earthquakes occur daily in the Philippines, as the archipelago is located on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, a zone of intense seismic and volcanic activity that stretches from Japan to the Pacific Basin through Asia from the South-East. Most are too faint to be felt by humans.
Update : addition this Saturday, December 2 at 5:10 p.m. of the tsunami alert and the evacuation of certain areas in Japan.