Powerful earthquake strikes off Philippine coast, tsunami warning issued
Tsunami warning issued across Asia after powerful offshore earthquake (photo: Getty Images)
A 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck off the southeastern coast of the Philippines, with a tsunami warning issued for the region, CNN reports.
According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the tremors were recorded off the eastern coast of Mindanao Island, approximately 123 kilometers from the island's capital, Davao City, at a depth of 58.1 kilometers.
According to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs), the tremor was magnitude 7.6. There have been no reports of damage.
Phivolcs stated that a "destructive tsunami" with "life-threatening wave heights" is expected and urged residents of coastal areas in the eastern and southern regions of the Philippines to evacuate.
The US Tsunami Warning System reported that wave heights along some parts of the Philippine coast could reach 1 to 3 meters.
On the coasts of Indonesia and the island nation of Palau, waves between 30 centimeters and 1 meter are expected.
The Philippines is located along the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire — an arc stretching about 40,000 kilometers that forms a system of seismic faults around the Pacific Ocean, where more than half of the world's volcanoes are concentrated and powerful earthquakes occur regularly.
Earthquakes around the world
On October 1, a powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 6.9 struck central Philippines, killing about 70 people and injuring 150 others.
On September 28, a 3.0 magnitude earthquake was recorded in Ukraine's Lviv region, near the city of Stryi. The epicenter was located at a depth of 4 kilometers.
On September 19, another strong earthquake shook Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula. The epicenter was located 93 kilometers from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.
