Magnitude 5.1 earthquake jolts S Philippines

A magnitude 5.1 earthquake jolted the southern Philippine Wednesday, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said later on Wednesday. According to Phivolcs, the quake, tectonic in origin with a depth of 34 km, was traced around 12.34 pm local time 150 km northeast of Tarragona town, which is a municipality in the Southern Philippine province of Davao Oriental. There were no reported casualties, said the agency. The Philippines sits in the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, an area where continental plates collide producing frequent earthquakes and volcanic activities. The worst earthquake in the country happened on August 16, 1976 after a tsunami caused by a quake killed between 5,000 and 8,000 people in the Moro Gulf region in southern Philippines.