No tsunami threat from 7.2-magnitude Davao Occidental quake — Phivolcs

There is no tsunami threat to the country following the 7.2-magnitude offshore earthquake near Davao Occidental on Friday afternoon, Nov. 17, said the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs).

“No destructive tsunami threat exists based on available sea-level data,” Phivolcs said in its advisory.

The earthquake, which struck at 4:14 p.m., had its epicenter 30 kilometers (km) southwest of Sarangani, Davao Occidental.

“However, earthquakes of this size may generate unusual sea level disturbances that may be observed along coasts near the earthquake epicenter of Davao Occidental,” 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 said that a tsunami is erroneously called tidal waves and sometimes mistakenly associated with storm surges.