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Timing of recent successive quakes a coincidence, says Phivolcs

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ABS-CBN News

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="Students from Manuel Araullo High School leave their classroom after an earthquake was felt in Manila on Oct. 13, 2023. ABS-CBN News/File " src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2023/tvpatrol/10/13/20231013-earthquake-school-aa.jpg"/><figcaption>Students from Manuel Araullo High School leave their classroom after an earthquake was felt in Manila on Oct. 13, 2023. <em>ABS-CBN News/File</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>MANILA — The timing of a string of powerful quakes that recently rattled parts of the country was a “coincidence”, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said on Wednesday. </p><p>A magnitude 5.7 earthquake shook Metro Manila on Tuesday, sending people rushing out of buildings and briefly halting train services in the city.<br/>It comes following aftershocks triggered by a magnitude 7.4 quake late Saturday in Mindanao that briefly triggered a tsunami warning. </p><p>Asked why quake appeared to be occurring successively, Phivolcs Director Dr. Teresito Bacolcol said, “Nagkataon lang po ‘yan.”</p><p>“Ibig lang pong sabihin, the Philippines is tectonically active. We have 6 trenches and 175 active fault segments. There is always the possibility po na sabay-sabay po ‘yan o magkakasunod po yung paglindol,” he told TeleRadyo Serbisyo. </p><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=2893626" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div><p>Tuesday’s quake struck off Occidental Mindoro at 4:23 p.m., about 94 kilometers southwest of Manila. </p><p>“Hindi po ito prelude to the Big One,” Bacolcol said. </p><p>The Big One is a potentially destructive quake that would come from the West Valley Fault. </p><p>It has “nothing to do with” the Manila trench that triggered Tuesday’s quake, Bacolcol said. </p><p>The West Valley Fault stretches from Bulacan to Laguna and passes through the capital. The Big One could produce an intensity 8 shaking that would make even standing up difficult in Metro Manila, Bulacan, western parts of Rizal, and northern parts of Laguna and Cavite, Phivolcs earlier said. </p><p>Meanwhile, the 7.4-magnitude earthquake that shook eastern Mindanao on Dec. 2 has spawned 3,039 aftershocks as of 8 a.m. Its strongest aftershock was measured at magnitude 6.6, Bacolcol said. </p><p>At least three people were killed and 17 were injured after the Dec. 2 quake hit, with thousands still in evacuation centers. </p><p>Earthquakes are a daily occurrence in the Philippines, which sits along the Pacific &quot;Ring of Fire&quot;, an arc of intense seismic and volcanic activity that stretches from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.</p><div><strong>— With a report from Agence France-Presse </strong></div>

The timing of a string of powerful quakes that recently rattled parts of the country was a 'coincidence', the Phivolcs said. 