No tsunami threat after a 6.6-magnitude quake hit Taiwan — Phivolcs


(PHIVOLCS)

There is no tsunami threat to the Philippines following a 6.6-magnitude earthquake in Taiwan on Monday, May 9, said the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs).

Phivolcs said the earthquake struck at around 2:23 p.m., and was shallow at a depth of 10 kilometers.

“No destructive tsunami threat exists based on available data,” it said in its tsunami information.

Phivolcs defines a tsunami as a series of sea waves commonly generated by under-the-sea earthquakes and whose heights could be greater than 5 meters.

It is erroneously called tidal waves and sometimes mistakenly associated with storm surges, it added.

Phivolcs said tsunamis can occur when the earthquake is shallow-seated and strong enough to displace parts of the seabed and disturb the mass of water over it.