7.3-magnitude quake hits off Philippine coast

There is no tsunami threat to the Philippines following the 7.3-magnitude offshore earthquake near Davao Occidental on Wednesday afternoon, Jan. 18, said the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs).

Report informs via foreign media that Phivolcs said the earthquake struck at 2:06 p.m., 356 kilometers southeast of Sarangani, Davao Occidental.

“Based on data provided by the Sea Level Monitoring Station in Mati City, Davao Oriental, no sea level changes were monitored,” Phivolcs said in a preliminary tsunami information.

As such, there is no destructive tsunami threat to the Philippines from the 7.3-magnitude earthquake.

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.