Eastern Samar quake not expected to cause much damage — DOST exec

The earthquake that occurred in eastern Samar on Tuesday afternoon was expected to cause less damage compared to the Zambales quake.

In an interview on Unang Hirit, Department of Science and Technology Undersecretary and Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology Officer-in-Charge Renato Solidum said the 6.5-magnitude quake on Tuesday was caused by the downward movement of Philippine sea plates in Eastern Samar along the Philippine Trench, which moved quickly from offshore Bicol to offshore Davao Oriental.

Sometimes, Solidum said, this type of movement causes strong quakes.

Tuesday's quake had a depth of up to 63 kilometers.

Solidum said PHIVOLCS has recorded up to 53 aftershocks since midnight and that the strongest aftershock was 4.6 magnitude that occurred at 2 p.m. on Tuesday.

There are more aftershocks from the Eastern Samar quake, but the intervals between quakes would be longer.

Solidum underscored that the Eastern Samar quake is different from the Zambales quake.

He added that so far, there are no reports from Albay.

"Ang mga lindol na naramdaman sa iba't-ibang dako ng Pilipinas, in particular 'yung dalawang araw na magkasunod na malakas na paglindol ay walang kaugnayan sa isa't-isa. Iba-ibang fault ang kumikilos at hindi niyo pwedeng gamitin basehan ng mga malakas pa na lindol," he said.

"Wala namang pattern ito pero dahil nga sa napakaraming aktibong fault at mga trenches sa dagat ay talagang nagkakataon na magkakaroon ng maraming lindol kada araw," he added.

On the average, up to 2,000 quakes are recorded by PHIVOLCS.

"Hindi nakakapagtaka na magkakasabay or almost one after the other ang posibleng magkaroon ng malakas na paglindol," he added. —BAP/KG, GMA News