Moderate quake shakes southern Philippines
A moderate quake with a magnitude of 5.3 rocks areas in the southern Philippines but there were no reports of damage or casualties.
A moderate quake with a magnitude of 5.3 rocked areas in the southern Philippines on Tuesday, but there were no reports of damage or casualties.
The quake's epicenter was located 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) northeast of the coast of Tandag on Surigao del Sur province on the main southern island of Mindanao, the state volcanology and seismology institute said.
It was felt in varying intensities in seven towns and cities, it said, but there was no damage to property and no tsunami warning was issued.
The Philippines sits on what is commonly referred to as the Pacific "ring of fire," a zone of frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions that encircles the Pacific Ocean basin.
The South East Asian archipelago nation of 86 million people is hit daily by earthquakes that are relatively low in magnitude and cause little or no structural damage.
The last major earthquake to hit the Philippines was on July 16, 1990, when a quake of 7.7 magnitude shattered the northern Luzon city of Baguio, killing or injuring an estimated 1,000 people.