The 2017 Surigao earthquake occurred on February 10, 2017, at 10:03 PM ( PST), with a surface wave magnitude of 6.7 off the coast of

Surigao del Norte Surigao del Norte ( Surigaonon: ''Probinsya nan Surigao del Norte''; ceb, Amihanang Surigao; Tagalog: ''Hilagang Surigao''), officially the Province of Surigao del Norte, is a province in the Philippines located in the Caraga region of Mindanao. ...

in the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

. According to the PHIVOLCS Earthquake Intensity Scale the earthquake was an Intensity VII (''Destructive'') earthquake at maximum. In the past

Surigao province Surigao was a province of the Philippines. Originally a Spanish-era district, became a chartered province on May 15, 1901 ('' Philippine Commission Act 127''). The province was dissolved on 1960. History Rajah Siawi and Rajah Kulambo, members ...

has been hit by a magnitude 7.2 tremor in both

1879 Events January–March * January 1 – The Specie Resumption Act takes effect. The United States Note is valued the same as gold, for the first time since the American Civil War. * January 11 – The Anglo-Zulu War begins. * Janu ...

and 1893.

Tectonic setting

The Philippine Islands is situated in a highly deformed zone between the

convergent boundary A convergent boundary (also known as a destructive boundary) is an area on Earth where two or more lithospheric plates collide. One plate eventually slides beneath the other, a process known as subduction. The subduction zone can be defined by a p ...

of the Eurasian and Philippine Sea plates, known as the Philippine Mobile Belt. Along the east, the Philippine Sea Plate

subducts Subduction is a geological process in which the oceanic lithosphere is recycled into the Earth's mantle at convergent boundaries. Where the oceanic lithosphere of a tectonic plate converges with the less dense lithosphere of a second plate, the ...

beneath the islands at the

Philippine The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

and East Luzon trenches. Major subduction complexes are also active along the southwestern coast of Mindanao at the

Cotabato Trench The Cotabato Trench is an oceanic trench in the Pacific Ocean, off the southwestern coast of Mindanao in the Philippines. Along this trench the oceanic crust of the Sunda Plate beneath the Celebes Sea is being subducted beneath the Philippines ...

and along the

Manila Trench The Manila Trench is an oceanic trench in the Pacific Ocean, located west of the islands of Luzon and Mindoro in the Philippines. The trench reaches a depth of about , in contrast with the average depth of the South China Sea of about . It is ...

of the west

Luzon Luzon (; ) is the largest and most populous island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the Philippines archipelago, it is the economic and political center of the nation, being home to the country's capital city, Manila, as ...

. Running through the Philippine Mobile Belt is the Philippine Fault System; a large 1,200-kilometer-long, highly segmented

strike-slip fault In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectoni ...

system. This left-lateral system of faults runs from southeastern Mindanao to northwestern Luzon. Strike-slip deformation within the Philippine Mobile Belt occurs as a result of oblique subduction of the Philippine Sea Plate, where the Philippine Fault System accommodates much of it. The fault is seismically active and ruptures periodically in large

earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, fr ...

s. Among the largest are the 1990 Luzon and

1973 Ragay Gulf earthquake The 1973 Ragay Gulf earthquake occurred at around 16:30 local time (UTC +8). It was measured as magnitude 7.4 Mw on the moment magnitude scale. It had a maximum intensity of IX (''Violent'') on the MMI, according to the National Geophysics Da ...

Earthquake

The earthquake was recorded by the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) on February 10, 2017, at 10:03:42 PM (UTC+8). According to PHIVOLCS, the epicenter of the 6.7 magnitude-earthquake was at or 16 kilometers, north west of

Surigao City Surigao City, officially the City of Surigao ( Surigaonon: ''Siyudad nan Surigao''; ceb, Dakbayan sa Surigao; fil, Lungsod ng Surigao), is a 1st class component city and capital of the province of Surigao del Norte, Philippines. According to t ...

. The earthquake was

tectonic Tectonics (; ) are the processes that control the structure and properties of the Earth's crust and its evolution through time. These include the processes of mountain building, the growth and behavior of the strong, old cores of continents ...

of origin. The most affected area in terms of the PHIVOLCS Earthquake Intensity Scale (PEIS) was Surigao City, which experienced an intensity of Intensity VII (Destructive). The

United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, ...

reported the earthquake as having a moment magnitude of 6.5. The

Pacific Tsunami Warning Center The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) is one of two tsunami warning centers that are operated by NOAA in the United States. Headquartered on Ford Island, HI, the PTWC is part of an international tsunami warning system (TWS) program and s ...

issued no tsunami warning following the earthquake.

Impact

According to the

Department of Social Welfare and Development The Philippines' Department of Social Welfare and Development ( fil, Kagawaran ng Kagalingan at Pagpapaunlad Panlipunan, Kagawaran ng Kagalingang Panlipunan at Pagpapaunlad, abbreviated as DSWD) is the executive department of the Philippine Gov ...

, at least 300 houses in

were damaged following the earthquake. Seven bridges collapsed, isolating

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

. At least eleven towns were affected, experiencing power outages. The Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council of Surigao del Norte projected that the cost of damage to property and infrastructure was at least . Eight people died in the earthquake while 202 others were injured.

Aftermath

On February 11, 2017, the government of Surigao City declared a state of calamity. The

Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP, ; fil, Pangasiwaan sa Abyasyong Sibil ng Pilipinas) is the civil aviation authority of the Philippines and is responsible for implementing policies on civil aviation to assure safe, econo ...

suspended all flights to and from

due to the damage sustained by the city's airport runway. The Philippine national government, through presidential spokesman

Ernesto Abella Ernesto "Ernie" Corpus Abella (born March 22, 1950) is a Filipino businessman, writer and former evangelist who served in the Duterte administration as Presidential Spokesperson (2016–2017) and Undersecretary for Strategic Communications and ...

, assured the public that the government would provide aid. By the afternoon of February 14, 2017, there were at least 140 reported aftershocks recorded by PHIVOLCS. On March 5, 2017, an aftershock of magnitude 5.9 occurred; one person died of a heart attack, and 29 others were injured, while some walls collapsed.

References

External links