Phivolcs’ dire forecast: Quake anytime this year By Angie M. Rosales 03/17/2011

Phivolcs’ dire forecast: Quake anytime this year

By Angie M. Rosales 03/17/2011
While earlier saying that nobody has the technology to predict an earthquake, officials of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) told a Senate inquiry yesterday that the country’s main fault line in Marikina valley or the Marikina fault is expected to move anytime this year that could trigger as strong as a 7.2-magnitude earthquake.

Phivolcs officials were quoting a 2004 study by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) that was based on the 200-year cycle of movement of the “west valley fault” located in the Marikina valley.

“The fault is now ripe for movement. There is a high probability that it would move in the future. We just can’t predict the exact date and time,” Phivolcs deputy director Bartolome Bautista said.

In a joint hearing on the disaster preparedness of the government by the committees on climate change chaired by Sen. Loren Legarda and environment and natural resources under Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri , lawmakers were also told that low-cost housing and low-rise buildings now proliferating in Metro Manila are under threat should the scenario given by Phivolcs take place..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20110317hed2.html