Samar earthquake not related to Zambales quake — Phivolcs

A highway and a portion of a bridge in Barangay Casoroy in San Julian, Eastern Samar, were damaged due to 6.2 earthquake that hit the place around 1:57 p.m. Tuesday. Photos courtesy: Maynard Evardone Madeja

MANILA, Philippines — The magnitude 6.5 earthquake in Eastern Samar Tuesday is not related to the magnitude 6.1 earthquake that struck Zambales and parts of Luzon on Monday, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said Tuesday.

“‘Yung kahapon ay local fault ito sa may Zambales-Pampanga area. Itong ngayon ay hindi related doon,” Rommel Grutas of Department of Science and Technology-Phivolcs said in a press conference in Quezon City.

(The earthquake yesterday is from a local fault in the Zambales-Pampanga area. Today’s earthquake is not related to that.)

Ishmael Narag, Officer-in-Charge of Phivolcs Seismological Observation and Earthquake Prediction Division, also clarified that the earthquake in Eastern Samar is not related to any weather phenomenon in the country such as El Niño.

“Yung mga lindol hindi sila affected ng any weather phenomenon. Yung pinagmumulan ng lindol ay napalalim at any temperature or extreme weather conditions ay hindi na naapektuhan ang mga lugar na ito (The earthquakes are not affected by any weather phenomenon. The cause is not related to temperature or extreme weather conditions),” Narag said.

Phivolcs also clarified that the Samar earthquake was raised to magnitude 6.5 from magnitude 6.2 after receiving more data. Despite this, no tsunami warnings were raised.

The agency added that there had been 495 aftershocks following the Luzon earthquake, and 21 for the Samar earthquake.

Cannot predict next earthquake

Phivolcs scientist Teresito Bacolcol explained that the Samar earthquake could not predict where and when the next earthquake will happen.

“You cannot predict when an earthquake will take place, pwedeng meron, pwedeng wala. Di natin malalaman kung magkakaroon ng lindol sa Metro Manila dahil nagkaroon ng lindol sa Samar. Yung earthquake, random po ‘yan,” Bacolcol said.

(You cannot predict when an earthquake will take place. We do not know if there will be an earthquake in Metro Manila just because an earthquake has occurred in Samar. Earthquakes are random.)

Phivolcs earlier disowned a text message that a magnitude 7.1 magnitude earthquake may strike Metro Manila soon.

“The text message is not from DOST-Phivolcs. There is no basis for the warning,” Phivolcs said in a statement in Filipino on Tuesday. /ee

READ: Magnitude 6.1 earthquake shakes parts of Luzon

READ: Magnitude 6.5 earthquake rattles Eastern Samar