No tsunami warning has been issued so far. (representative)
Philippines:
An earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale rocked the central Philippines Thursday morning, the US Geological Survey said, with the local seismological service warning of aftershocks and possible damage.
The strong and shallow quake struck Masbate province in the center of the archipelago shortly after 2 a.m. local time (1800 GMT), startling people awake.
The epicenter was 11 kilometers (seven miles) from the nearest village of Miaga, in the town of Uson, on the province’s main island, Masbate, USGS said.
Shallow earthquakes tend to cause more damage than deeper earthquakes, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.
No tsunami warning has been issued.
“It was a bit strong,” Masbate provincial police chief Rolly Albana told AFP.
“I was asleep when we got shaken and woke up.”
Albana said police had not reported any effects from the earthquake.
Uson police chief, Captain Reden Tolledo, said some residents had fled their homes.
“Even I went out because of possible aftershocks,” Tolledo said.
Gregorio Adigue, a disaster official in Dimasalang municipality, said he felt a strong aftershock almost an hour after the quake.
But buildings and other structures in the area did not appear to be damaged, he said.
“Later, we will go by the schools in each village to inspect their buildings,” said Adigue.
Masbate’s education department has reportedly suspended classes for Thursday due to “ongoing aftershocks that are being felt” in the province.
Earthquakes occur daily in the Philippines, along the Pacific Ocean’s “Ring of Fire,” an arc of intense seismic and volcanic activity that stretches from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific Ocean basin.
Most are too weak to be felt by humans, but strong and destructive ones come at random and no technology is available to predict when and where they will happen.
The country’s civil protection agency conducts regular exercises simulating earthquake scenarios along active fault lines.
The last major earthquake was in October in the northern Philippines.
The magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck the mountain town of Dolores in Abra province, injuring several people, damaging buildings and knocking out power in most of the region.
A magnitude 7.0 earthquake in mountainous Abra last July triggered landslides and ground cracks, killing 11 people and injuring hundreds.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NewsMadura staff and is being published from a syndicated feed.)
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