There is no tsunami threat to the Philippines following a 7.0-magnitude earthquake in Abra province on Wednesday, July 27, said the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs).
Phivolcs said the earthquake that struck at around 8:43 a.m. has originated 3 kilometers (km) northwest of Tayum, Abra.
“No destructive tsunami threat exists based on available data. This is for information purposes only and there is no tsunami threat to the Philippines frorm this earthquake,” it said in its tsunami information.
“However, earthquakes of this size may generate unusual sea level disturbances that may be observe along coasts near earthquake epicenter of Abra province,” it added.
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.