The strong earthquake struck the second largest island of the archipelago this Saturday, December 2nd, causing in particular an aftershock of magnitude 6.4.
A magnitude 6.4 aftershock struck the southern Philippines again this Saturday, December 2, after a strong magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck the island of Mindanao, the American Institute of Geophysics (USGS) announced. Although no injuries or damage have been reported so far, Philippine authorities have warned of a “destructive tsunami” and urged people in the coastal provinces of Surigao South and Davao Oriental to move inland. Land or terrain at higher elevations.
The tidal wave “is expected to produce waves whose height poses a threat to life,” the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology warned on X (formerly Twitter). Evacuation orders have also been issued for some areas of southwestern Japan near the coast, where waves of one meter or more are expected.
The earthquake struck 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. On November 17, a magnitude 6.7 earthquake struck the Mindanao region, killing at least nine people. The island, which has been the victim of several aftershocks since the strong earthquake, is the second largest in the Philippine archipelago in both area and population – it has 26,252,442 inhabitants or 24.08% of the country’s population.
Earthquakes occur daily in the Philippines because the archipelago lies on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” a zone of intense seismic and volcanic activity that stretches from Japan to the Pacific Basin through Asia in the southeast. Most are too weak to be noticed by humans.
To update : In addition, this Saturday, December 2nd, at 5:10 p.m., there is the tsunami warning and the evacuation of certain areas in Japan; at 5:55 p.m. of the magnitude 6.4 aftershock.