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DAVAO CITY – A strong earthquake struck southwest Mindanao around midnight Sunday, sending residents running out of their homes in panic.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology recorded the 6.4 magnitude quake at a depth of 143 kilometers in a mountainous region of the Don Marcelino city of Davao Occidental at 11:23 p.m. Sunday.
The tremor was of tectonic origin with no reported damage to commercial establishments and infrastructure, but its effect extended to the city of General Santos to the west which was felt with intensity 5, the city of Kidapawan to the north with intensity 4 and much further to Gingoog City in the north of Mindanao in intensity 3 and Bislig City in Surigao del Sur in the northeast in intensity 2.
The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines said the Mindanao Grid remained intact “as there are no reports of power outages or damaged transmission facilities in Davao Occidental and nearby areas where the earthquake was felt.”
The eastern half of Mindanao continued to be affected by earthquakes after the traumatic occurrence of successive earthquakes of more than 6 degrees in a span of two weeks at the end of October last year. These occurred in the interior of the south-central city of Tulunan, in southern Cotabato.
Just last week, on August 31, a magnitude 5 earthquake occurred at a depth of 18 kilometers from the city of Kiblawan, Davao del Sur.
Since January of this year, strong earthquakes of tectonic origin have alternated from epicenters off the island of Sarangani in Davao Occidental, Sarangani province, and in various towns in Davao del Sur and Davao Occidental.
