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Magnitude 7.5 MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES

2002 March 05 21:16:09 UTC

Preliminary Earthquake Report
U.S. Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center
World Data Center for Seismology, Denver

 
TECTONIC SETTING

This thrust earthquake occurred landward of the Cotabato Trench, which is part of a distributed zone of deformation between the Sunda Plate and the Philippine Sea Plate. These plates are converging at a rate of about 6 cm per year. The mechanism is consistent with an interface event occurring on the boundary between the subducting plate and the overlying lithosphere.