Prepare, instead of worrying about the big earthquake

There is an urgent need to let people know about the Magnitude 7.2 Earthquake that will hit Metro Manila anytime.  Experts are certain that it will come and how strong it would be.  We must prepare and not waste our time worrying about it.  The following is from the Philippine Daily Inquirer where Phivolcs Director Renato Solidum, Jr. had been quoted:

According to Solidum, it is "something to worry about, not with a sense of panic but concern, so that we can prepare for a big earthquake in advance."

He stressed "we need to have a culture of not only the knowledge of what might happen, but also the culture of preparedness."

A Phivolcs report given the Inquirer shows that what happened in the Philippines before, such as an earthquake with magnitude 7, can happen again.

"The likelihood of these destructive quakes occurring again in the future is indeed very strong," the report said.

Solidum said the West Valley Fault, or WVF, formerly known as the Marikina Fault, one of the country's active faults, generated a magnitude 7 quake when it last moved about 200 years ago.

"We can't say when exactly it will move again. But considering its long repose period, the probability of it moving again soon is increasing and increasing," he pointed out.

Movements along these faults and in several trenches, in addition to the two seismically rambunctious tectonic plates where the Philippine archipelago sits, generate five up to close to 30 quakes a day.

"But if you look at our statistics during the past 400 years we already have 90 destructive quakes, meaning one in every four or five years, there should be a strong quake. But the last strong one was in the late 1990s," said Solidum.

from The Philippine Daily Inquirer (May 18, 2008). Safety checks on schools sought as part of quake precaution. 

http://archive.inquirer.net/view.php?db=1&story_id=137330