The swarm began on Thursday, March 13, and continued through the weekend, according to eyewitnesses. The strongest seismic event in the series registered a magnitude of 4.6.
Hermie Daquipa, a geologist at the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS), described the activity as “a series of earthquakes striking in clustered areas in a short period of time.”
Daquipa said the quakes resulted in a land crack in Barangay Malasila that measured about 100 feet (30 metres) in depth.
Residents blamed the drilling operations of the Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC) in the Mount Apo region for causing the quake swarm, but PHIVOLCS dismissed the accusations as “baseless.”
