People in the central Philippine province of Masbate continued to feel aftershocks on Thursday, August 20, two days after a 6.6 magnitude earthquake struck the town of Caitangan on Tuesday, August 18.
“So far it was the strongest earthquake that I experienced here in Masbate,” said Father Paolo Granado Cervantes in an interview with Radio Veritas 846 on August 20.
“We are worried about the safety of people,” said the priest. He assured that the Catholic church and the convent in the area have strong foundations.
“But what we experienced was really different,” said the priest, adding that hundreds of aftershocks continue to be felt.
He said people have set up temporary shelters in the fields for fear that their houses will collapse.
Authorities have discovered a sea sinkhole in one village and liquefaction in another, said the Office of Civil Defense.
Initial damage due to the earthquake was estimated at about 24 million pesos or about US$500,000.
At least 19 schools and 24 houses were reported damaged.
Over 200 aftershocks have already been recorded by the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology.
State seismologists said the largest movement was preceded by what they call as foreshocks, or earthquakes before the main earthquake or main shock.
They suggested that the recent movement was caused by a “strike-slip faulting associated with the left-lateral movement” of the Philippine fault line’s Masbate segment.
Masbate had also experienced a strong earthquake in 2003, which produced a 23-km long surface rupture.
The 2003 Masbate earthquake also recorded foreshocks similar to the recent event, said the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology.
