NEWS

6.0-Magnitude Earthquake Jolts Philippines

<h4>6&period;0-Magnitude Earthquake Jolts Philippines</h4>&NewLine;<a href="https&colon;//openlife&period;ng/">OpenLife Nigeria</a> reports that after a devastating earthquake hit Turkey on February 6, killing at least 45,000 people and rendering millions homeless across almost a dozen cities with estimated at &dollar;34 billion or roughly 4 percent loss in the country’s annual economic output, a 6&period;0-magnitude earthquake jolted the southern Philippines on Tuesday&period; &NewLine;This was made known by the US Geological Survey&period; Local authorities have warned of aftershocks and possible damage&period; &NewLine;According to information, the shallow quake struck at about 2&colon;00 pm (0600 GMT), a few kilometres from Maragusan municipality in the mountainous gold-mining province of Davao de Oro on Mindanao island&period; &NewLine;Shallow earthquakes tend to cause more harm than deeper ones, but there were no immediate confirmed reports of major damage&period; &NewLine;An employee in the Maragusan disaster office told AFP that authorities were checking reports of a landslide on a national highway&period; &NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We have not received any reports of other damage or casualties, but we are checking the villages around the town,” he added, declining to give his name&period; &NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Things shook at the office but there was no damage&period;” &NewLine;The <a href="https&colon;//www&period;channelstv&period;com/">quake lasted about 30 seconds and was followed by aftershocks, said Corporal Stephanie Clemen,</a> with police in the city of Tagum, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) from Maragusan&period; &NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We immediately went under our desks and when the ground stopped shaking we went straight outside,” Clemen told AFP&period; &NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We are still outside because a moderate aftershock just hit&period;” &NewLine;While the quake did not appear to have destroyed anything, Clemen said, it was strong enough to &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;cause fear”&period; &NewLine;Phoebe Alberto and her colleagues at the disaster office in New Bataan municipality, adjacent to Maragusan, fled their building as it shook&period; &NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We are still assessing damage to our building, if any,” said Alberto&period; &NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We are here outside now&period;” &NewLine;Quakes are a daily occurrence in the Philippines, which sits along the Pacific &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Ring of Fire”, an arc of intense seismic as well as volcanic activity that stretches from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin&period; &NewLine;Most are too weak to be felt by humans, but strong and destructive ones come at random with no technology available to predict when and where they will happen&period; &NewLine;The nation’s civil defence office regularly holds drills simulating earthquake scenarios along active fault lines&period; &NewLine;The last major quake was in October in the northern Philippines&period; &NewLine;The 6&period;4-magnitude earthquake hit the mountain town of Dolores in Abra province, injuring several people, damaging buildings and cutting power to most of the region&period; &NewLine;A 7&period;0-magnitude quake in mountainous Abra last July triggered landslides and ground fissures, killing 11 people and injuring several hundred&period; &NewLine;Source&colon; AFP&NewLine;

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