StEER is pleased to announce the release of the Event Briefing for the Mw 6.9 Philippines Earthquake on December 15, 2019:

Gunay, Selim; Archbold, Jorge; Hu, Fan; Tsai, Alicia; Mosalam, Khalid; Kijewski-Correa, Tracy; Robertson, Ian; Prevatt, David; Roueche, David (2020) “StEER - 15 December 2019 Earthquake in the Philippines: Event Briefing.” DesignSafe-CI. https://doi.org/10.17603/ds2-82rp-h963.

Summary

On December 15, 2019, at approximately 2:11 pm local time, a magnitude 6.8 earthquake, with a depth of 22.4 km, struck 6 km south of Magsaysay, Philippines. It was the fourth big earthquake (magnitude > 6.4) to hit the region within the past two months. The four big earthquakes have collectively resulted in at least a dozen shaking-related fatalities, over 150 injuries, building collapses and significant damage in the region. Such frequent occurrence of large intensity earthquakes is a very rare case and likely had impacts on the performance of the structures in the December 15th earthquake. The objectives of this event briefing are to: 1) provide details of the earthquake hazard, 2) describe damage to buildings and disruption to the community in terms of fatalities, injuries and economic losses, and 3) identify key lessons learned. Information provided herein was gathered from various websites, news channels, USGS and the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology. Therefore, this briefing does not include insights from detailed field investigations.