Wall of rock rises out of the ground in the Philippines: new fault triggered large quake
October 24, 2013 PHILIPPINES As the magnitude 7.2 earthquake ended on Oct. 15, residents of Sitio Kumayot in Barangay Anonang heard an explosive sound like a thunderclap. Villagers watched in horrified disbelief as the ground cracked open and, with smoke and the stench of sulphur spreading, one side started to rise. The emerging wall of rock and earth missed by a hairline the toilet of baker Menecia Bautista Aparecio, 43. We will be living forever in fear, being so close to the fault line, said Aparecio, who fears returning to her home and now bakes her pan Bisaya or pan kinamot, a local bread, in the village chapel. The rock face, about three meters high and two kilometers long, raised fears among villagers that more cracks would appear on the ground and swallow them up. Scientists, who may declare a 300-meter permanent danger zone around the fault, described the appearance of the ground rupture as a eureka moment in their search for what they have long suspected was an active earthquake fault in the area. Government scientists said the appearance of the yet unnamed fault, which does not exist on the countrys map of fault lines, triggered the powerful earthquake in Central Visayas. We are 100 percent sure that this is the generator (of the earthquake), Teresito Bacolcol told GMA 7 as he noted that the rock face appeared near the quakes epicenter at the boundary of Sagbayan and Catigbian towns. When we saw (the fault), eureka! This is it. Bacolcol led a team from the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs), which inspected the rock face last Monday. We recommend that no structures should be built on top of a fault and within the five-meter buffer zone on both sides of the fault, Phivolcs director Renato Solidum told The STAR. He also urged the local government of Bohol to revise its land use policy around the fault. -Philstar
I need a motocycle:)
thanks, no I hadn’t seen these pics. all i had seen were some minor damage from old buildings and read about the Bohol fault being a thrust fault and vertical movement.
many thanks
makes sense now with the position of the aftershocks and the lack of known faults on Bohol, the only previously recorded fault being the East Fault that runs NE to SW on the Philippine PHIVOLCS site.