DAVAO City––The govern-ment yesterday sounded alarm bells and raised a tsunami alert over 20 provinces, five of them in Mindanao, after a 7.9 magnitude earthquake rattled near the coast of Chile at 6:55 am.
Citing a tsunami bulletin, Mindanews reported that the threatened Mindanao provinces were Surigao del Norte, Surigao del Sur, Davao Oriental, Davao del Sur, and Davao Occidental.
“An earthquake of this size has the potential to generate a destructive tsunami that can strike coastlines in the region near the epicenter within minutes to hours,” it added.
The alert was also raised over the Batanes Group of Islands, Cagayan, Ilocos Norte, Isabela, Quezon, Aurora, Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, Albay, Catanduanes, Sorsogon, Northern Samar, Eastern Samar, Leyte, and Southern Leyte.
The strong quake had a depth of 33 kilometers and was seen 46 kilometers West of Illapel, Chile in South America, according to United States Geological Survey (USGS).
The USGS report cited the quake occurred “as the result of thrust faulting on the interface between the Nazca and South America plates in Central Chile.”
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