Shifting tectonic plates at the Negros Trench continue to generate aftershock tremors with 344 recorded by the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) as of 8 a.m. Friday.
Joe Molas, science research analyst of the PHIVOLCS station in Sibulan, Negros Oriental, disclosed the last felt quake was at 2:49 Friday with a 4.2 magnitude.
This was felt at varying intensities in different parts of Negros Oriental. Reports reaching the local PHIVOLCS station said the capital city of Dumaguete, nearby Sibulan town, and Pamplona, about an hour’s drive north of here, recorded an Intensity Level I while Bayawan City in the south registered an Intensity Level II, Molas said.
Of the 344 aftershocks that followed the 6.2 magnitude major earthquake at 4:47 a.m. Tuesday, a total of 28, with varying magnitudes between 1 and 4, were felt by humans, he added.
The aftershocks and Tuesday’s major earthquake were preceded by two foreshocks at past midnight Monday and a few more in the afternoon and evening of the same day.
There is no telling yet when the shifting of tectonic plates at the Negros Trench will end, said Molas, who further disclosed that at press time, the seismograph at their monitoring station in San Antonio, Sibulan, continues to record ground shaking.
He also reiterated that nobody can predict whether another major earthquake will hit Negros and Panay Islands and nearby areas with the current active condition of the Negros Trench.
The PHIVOLCS has also repeated its earlier pronouncements that no official tsunami alert warning has been raised this week, since the tremors started, Molas added. (PNA) JFP