Earthquakes in the Philippines

The Philippines lies squarely within the Pacific Ring of Fire, trapped between subduction zones on both sides of the archipelago. To the east the Philippine Sea plate dives beneath the islands along the Philippine Trench, while to the west the Sunda plate is consumed at the Manila and Negros trenches. Cutting through the whole country is the Philippine Fault, a major left-lateral strike-slip system that generates powerful shallow earthquakes.

The 1990 Luzon earthquake, a magnitude 7.7 event, ruptured about 120 kilometers of the Philippine Fault and killed more than 1,600 people, causing dramatic surface displacement near Baguio. In 2013 a magnitude 7.2 quake struck Bohol, destroying centuries-old churches and triggering thousands of landslides across the island.