Earthquake hits southern Philippines; no damage

An undersea 6.9-magnitude earthquake hit the southern Philippines on Saturday morning but it was too deep to cause any damage, officials said.

No tsunami alert was issued, said the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, based in Hawaii.

The quake hit the Moro Gulf off Mindanao Island at 7.15 am (4.45 am IST), the U.S. Geological Survey said. It said the quake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.4 but the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology later reported a 6.9 magnitude.

“The origin of the quake was 606 km underground so it was barely felt,” the institute’s Director Renato Solidum Jr. said in an interview on DZBB radio.

The temblor was centered about 120 km southwest of Cotabato city and about 900 km southeast of the capital, Manila.

The Philippine archipelago lies in the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire where earthquakes are common. It is flanked by the Pacific Ocean to the east and the South China Sea to the west with undersea trenches — potential quake triggers — running alongside its coast on both sides.

A major quake that registered a magnitude 7.7 in 1990 killed nearly 2,000 people on the main northern island of Luzon.