A powerful 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck southeast of Philippines under the Celebs Sea on Tuesday, reported the US Geological Survey. The major undersea quake hit the country near Tabiauan at around 2:13 PM local time.
The tremor was measured 617 km (380 miles) below the earth’s crust. However, the quake was not strong enough to cause any damages to life and property or to generate tsunami alerts. The quake, which was set off by movement of oceanic plates was slightly felt in southern General Santos city.
The epicenter of the undersea quake was 223 kilometers southeast of Tongkil, Sulu province. As per the Seismologists, such massive quakes occurring that deep are rare but some shallow tremors have occurred a number of times in the past.
The reason to the country observing plenty of quakes can be attributed to the archipelago of the Philippines that falls in the Pacific “ring of fire” where occurrences of quakes and volcanic activities are pretty common.
Apart from this massive earthquake, four other minor quakes have been recorded by Phivolcs today. The quakes shivered San Antonio, Zambales; Bayaba, Surigao Del Sur; Abra de Ilog, Occidental Mindoro; and Governor Generoso, Davao Oriental and most of them were tectonic in origin.
In fact, ever since the year 2017 started, incidents and reports of earthquakes have increased significantly. The various earthquakes that shook the earth include the 6.9 magnitude earthquake felt at Fiji, a 5.5 magnitude quake that shook New Zealand, a 5.8 magnitude tremor in Canada and today a massive 7.3 quake jolted the Philippines.
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