Major Earthquake Zones in the

Philippines
CE163-1
BASICS OF EARTHQUAKE
ENGINEERING
Outline
Introduction
Philippine Setting
Philippine Sea Plate
Philippine Fault Zone
Valley Fault System

2
Review

3
 Plate boundaries are always faults, but not all faults are plate
boundaries. The movement of the plates relative to each other
distorts the crust in the region of the boundaries creating
systems of earthquake faults.

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20XX PRESENTATION TITLE 4

 Introduction
The Philippines is located in latitude 5° to 19°45' N. and longitude 116° to 128°
E. It’s capital region, Metropolitan Manila is located in the center of Luzon
Island, between Manila Bay, which extends to the South China Sea, and Laguna
de Bay. Many earthquake generators are distributed all over the country.

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Philippine
Setting
The Philippines is situated near the
junction of three large major tectonic
plates, namely; Eurasian Plate,
Philippine Sea Plate Indo-Australian
Plate (Aurelio, 2000; Queaño, 2006)

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Philippine Sea
Plate
The Philippine Sea plate is
bordered by the larger Pacific
and Eurasia plates, and by the
smaller Sunda plate. The
Philippine Sea plate is unusual
in that its borders are nearly all (USGS, Smoczyk et al. 2013)
zones of plate convergence
(subduction).

Configuration of the Philippine

Sea plate around the subduction
zone with the Eurasian plate.
(Zheng et al. 2013) 7
Philippine Sea
Plate
The Pacific plate is subducted
into the mantle, south of Japan,
beneath the Izu-Bonin and
Mariana Island arcs, which
extend more than 3,000 km
along the eastern margin of the
Philippine Sea plate.

(USGS, Smoczyk et al. 2013)

This subduction zone is characterized by rapid plate convergence and high-

level seismicity extending to depths of over 600 km.
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Earthquake
Generators
The Eurasian Plate (or South
China Plate) subducts eastward
beneath Luzon Island along
the Manila Trench, and the
Philippine Sea Plate subducts
westward along the East Luzon
Trench simultaneously as
shown in Figure. Because of
this complex tectonic setting,
Luzon Island shows high
seismic activity.
(JICA, 2013)

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The Philippine Fault Zone (PFZ)

10
Distribution
of Active
Faults in the
Philippines

The Philippine Fault system is an inter-related system of

geological faults throughout the whole of the Philippine
Archipelago.
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The Philippine Fault
Zone
The Philippine Fault Zone (PFZ) is a 1,200-
km-long, inland fault zone that lies parallel
to the subduction trenches.
It is a major tectonic feature that transects
the whole Philippine archipelago from
northwestern Luzon to southeastern
Mindanao.
The PFZ is assumed to release the shear
stress caused by the oblique subduction of
the ocean plates.

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The Philippine Fault
Zone
This arc-parallel, left-lateral strike slip
fault is divided into several segments and
has been the source of large-magnitude
earthquakes in recent years, such as the
1973 Ragay Gulf earthquake (M 7.0),
1990 Luzon earthquake (Mw 7.7) (Figure
1), and 2003 Masbate earthquake (Ms
6.2).

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1990 Luzon Earthquake

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The Philippine Fault
Zone
It is divided into three major segments.
• Northern Segment
• Central Segment
• Cutting across the islands of Leyte,
Masbate, Burias, and Alabat, and between
Bicol and Bondoc Peninsula.
• Southern Segment
• Traces passing through Agusan-Davao
basin, and exits Davao Gulf in Eastern
Mindanao.

(Image Source: PHIVOLCS)

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The
Philippine
Fault Zone
NORTHERN
SEGMENT

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The
Philippine
Fault Zone CENTRAL SEGMENT

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The Philippine Fault Zone SOUTHERN SEGMENT

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 Comparison between San Andreas Fault and PFZ

PHILIPPINE FAULT ZONE SAN ANDREAS FAULT

(PFZ), PF

LENGTH 1200 km 800 miles/1200+ km

MOVEMENT Left Lateral strike slip Right Lateral strike slip

SLIP RATE ± 20 to 40 mm per year ± 20 to 35 mm per year

PROBABLE MAGNITUDE Mw 6.8-8.0 Mw 6.8-8.0

(Villaraza, 2020)

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The Valley Fault System

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Valley Fault
System
The Valley Fault System
(VFS), an active fault in the
Greater Metro Manila Area
(GMMA), consists of two
segments:
• East Valley Fault (EVF)
• West Valley Fault (WVF)

21
(Image Source: PHIVOLCS)
 Valley Fault
System EVF

The EVF is about 10-km-long

and traverses the
municipalities of Rodriguez
and San Mateo in Rizal
province.

This fault can generate an earthquake with a magnitude

of 6.2 that may result to a very destructive ground
shaking. (Image Source: PHIVOLCS)
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 Valley Fault
System
The WVF is approximately 100-km-
long and transects portions of WVF
Quezon City, Marikina City, Pasig
City, Makati City, Taguig City,
Muntinlupa City, and the provinces
of Bulacan (Doha Remedios
Trinidad, Norzagaray and San Jose
Del Monte City), Rizal (Rodriguez),
Laguna (San Pedro City, Binan City,
Sta. Rosa City, Cabuyao City and
Calamba City) and Cavite (Carmona,
General Mariano Alvarez and Silang).
This fault can generate an earthquake with a magnitude
of 7.2 that may result to a very destructive ground
shaking. 23
(Image Source: PHIVOLCS)
The Big One
• Every Fault System has it’s own BIG
ONE. An earthquake of no less than
7.2 in the Richter scale may be
experienced in our lifetime (DOST-
PHILVOCS).
• WVF moves every 200 – 400 years and
the last time it did was in the year
1658.

(Rappler)
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HEALTH AND SAFETY MOMENT

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 END

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