A powerful 6.9 magnitude earthquake struck the Philippines just before 10 p.m. local time Tuesday, with the epicenter located about seven miles east-southeast of Calape, Bohol province.
The quake struck at a shallow depth of around 6 miles, which increases the likelihood of strong shaking on land.
Calape sits in the central Philippines, not far from Cebu City, one of the country’s largest metropolitan hubs. It’s also relatively close to Tacloban, which many remember as the city devastated by Super Typhoon Haiyan in 2013.
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The region is also a popular tourist destination, with Bohol known for its Chocolate Hills and white-sand beaches.
There is no tsunami threat at this time, according to monitoring agencies.
The Philippines lies along the seismically active boundaries of the Philippine Sea Plate, which has produced some of the world’s deadliest earthquakes and tsunamis. Among them: the 1976 Moro Gulf earthquake and tsunami that killed more than 5,000 people, and the 1990 Luzon earthquake, which left 2,400 dead.
Authorities are now assessing potential damage and aftershocks in affected areas, as reports begin to come in from across the Visayas region.
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