The Intensity 7.8 earthquake off the southern coast of Mindanao Island on Monday is the strongest tremor the country has suffered in nearly five decades. Authorities said 41 were killed while 12 remain missing as night fell on a traumatized populace.
Aside from commercial buildings and school houses across two island regions, local authorities reported that a stretch of highway in South Cotabato Province collapsed as a result of the quake, cutting off access to the upland tourist town of T’boli whilw a bridge connecting General Santos City to Sarangani fell.
Monday’s quake mirrored the incident that happened nearly 50 years ago on August 17, 1976 called the Moro Gulf Earthquake, but with much fewer casualties.
What was the Philippines deadliest quake in the last century?
Filipinos are no strangers to strong earthquakes. Located right where the Pacific Ocean plate meets the Asiatic tectonic plate, the country experiences an average of 7,300 earthquakes annually, up to 150 of them classified as “strong.” Monday’s tremor is classified as “destructive” by the national seismology agency.
The incident had been identified by the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology as having been caused by the active undersea furrow called the Cotabato Trench. Monday’s earthquake produced a moderate 1 meter tsunami in several coastal areas in Mindanao.
The Cotabato Trench also caused the 1976 event whose accompanying 9 meter tsunami killed up to 8,000 victims. The Moro Gulf Earthquake is the Philippines’ deadliest tremor, killing more victims than the stronger 1918 Magnitude 8.3 Celebes Sea earthquake that the Cotabato Trench also caused in almost exactly the same spot. The earlier tectonic rupture reportedly produced an 8-meter tsunami that killed 52 victims.
How strong is an intensity 7.8 earthquake?
A 7.8 magnitude quake is mathematically equivalent to the energy of roughly 30 to 40 million tons of TNT, which in turn is equivalent to 2,000 to 2,667 Hiroshima bombs. It is likewise significantly more powerful than the 1906 San Francisco earthquake that destroyed the entire city.
An earthquake magnitude measures the total energy released at the source. Its intensity, meanwhile, refers to the actual shaking experienced by residents in the affected area. Intensity also refers to the physical damage done in a specific area, such as the collapsed buildings and highways reported in Monday’s earthquake in the Philippines.
How prepared is the Philippines?
An earthquake cannot be predicted. But as various videos of this morning’s event have shown, Filipino teachers automatically tried to calm their students who, in turn, were able to follow instructions despite their obvious terror.
As one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries, the Philippines had actually been preparing for what it calls “The Big One.” But it is not the movement by the Cotabato Trench that the country is most afraid of; it is by the Manila Trench which the government said is due for a rupture.
The Manila Trench lies on the eastern boundary of Metropolitan Manila that has about 14 million residents. Its dense population is most vulnerable should an equally-strong earthquake happen in the area. Many of its buildings do not adhere to the Intensity 7.0 threshold that had only been recently implemented.
Since 2006, the country’s Office of Civil Defense and the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council conceptualized the Nationwide Simultaneous Earthquake Drill in 2006. This initiative was created in response to the devastating earthquake that struck Yogyakarta, Indonesia, earlier that same year.
The earthquake drills had been regularly held, several times a year, in schools and government offices most of all. Monday’s destructive earthquake would have been much worse if it happened a few minutes later when the schoolchildren were already inside the school buildings and without the simulations and drills.
Rescue operations ongoing
Search and rescue operations are actively ongoing across the affected areas. Government and civic emergency teams are operating on the ground to handle extrications, debris clearing, and disaster relief.
A major city close to the quake’s epicenter is General Santos , which is hardest hit by the event. Responders from the Philippine Red Cross and the Bureau of Fire Protection are conducting heavy searches at a collapsed commercial facility near the city center. K-9 units of the Philippine Coast Guard are also deployed for search operations.
ACT Teachers’ Party Rep. Antonio Tinio urged authorities to fully inspect school buildings before allowing classes to reopen. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
