TACLOBAN CITY – The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) reiterated its call on Thursday for Eastern Visayas residents to prepare for a major earthquake as the Central Leyte fault remains ripe for destructive ground shaking.
During the Maghanda Summit at the Leyte Convention Complex in Palo, DOST-Phivolcs senior science research specialist Jeffrey Perez said the 100-kilometer segment of the fault has not moved in more than 100 years.
The fault segment stretches from Burauen, Leyte, to Saint Bernard in Southern Leyte and is capable of generating a magnitude-7.1 earthquake.
“There have been no movements of this fault since the Spanish colonization; it is capable of generating a magnitude-7.1 earthquake that will affect not just Leyte, but other parts of Eastern Visayas,” Perez said.
The segment is connected to a 24-kilometer fault line that moved on July 6, 2017, an event that killed four people and injured over 100 others in Kananga and Ormoc City.
The Leyte Island fault line is a component of the 1,200-kilometer Philippine Fault Zone, a major tectonic feature transecting the archipelago from Luzon to Mindanao.
This left-lateral strike-slip fault has been the source of historical large-magnitude events, including the 1990 Luzon earthquake and the 2003 Masbate earthquake.
Experts noted that the high seismic risk posed by the zone requires large-scale active fault maps as fundamental datasets for regional hazard mitigation.
DOST Secretary Renato Solidum explained that tectonic pressure continues to build up because friction locks the rocky surfaces of the faults in place.
“Energy stored increases if it doesn’t move; at some point, it surpasses the friction threshold, leading to sudden movement and earthquakes,” Solidum said.
Solidum reminded residents to prepare for a local version of the “Big One,” noting that there are existing active faults in every province. The secretary identified the Philippine Trench and the Philippine Fault Zone as the two primary sources of major seismic activity in the country. (PNA)
