Strong quake strikes off Philippines; the center said there is no longer a tsunami threat

On Saturday morning, a very strong earthquake struck off the southern Philippine island of Mindanao. The earthquake that hit the Philippine island was measured of 6.9 magnitude, which is quite high.

This earthquake of 6.9 magnitude raised the fears of hazardous tsunami waves from corner to corner of the area. People of that area got comforted when after about two hours; the threatening of tsunami was withdrawn.

This earthquake hit the southern Philippine just a week after a volcano prompted tsunami exterminated more than 400 people in adjoining Indonesia. However, everything is under control in Philippines as well as there were no reports of fatalities, losses or damage from the earthquake.

The surveys of U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said that the earthquake struck 193 km (120 miles) east of the Philippine city of General Santos, at a depth of 60 km (37 miles).

In the beginning, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said “hazardous tsunami waves were possible within 300 km (186 miles) of the epicentre”, along with the shores of the Philippines, Indonesia and the Pacific island nation of Palau.

But soon after its warning, the centre said there was no longer a tsunami threat. They released the statement almost two hours after the earthquake struck the island.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in the beginning said that the magnitude of the earthquake was 7.2 but soon after they lowered it to 6.9.

Inhabitants of the southern Philippines said the earthquake continued for about a minute and people quickly moved out of the buildings but there had been no major destruction.

According to the reports, the cities in the south of the nation felt abstemiously strong quivering but the establishments in the affected areas said they had no instantaneous reports of injury, harm, destruction or casualties from the strong earthquake.

Indonesian media also reported the event and said that there were no reports of damage. Both, the Philippines and Indonesia are on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, it has a horse-shoe shaped group of volcanoes and fault lines surrounding the boundaries of the Pacific Ocean.

This year only Indonesia has been come into contact with two serious tsunami that had led a lot of serious damages to the property as well as the life of the residents.

The first tsunami was monitored a 7.5 magnitude earthquake on the west coast of Sulawesi island in September. In that occurrence more than 2,000 people were killed and properties were also damaged.

A week ago on Saturday evening, the second tsunami struck when part of a volcanic island distorted in the Sunda Strait, in the middle of Java and Sumatra islands, causing dangerous tsunami waves that killed more than 400 people.