mabuhayradio.com: What If the Big One Hits Metro Manila and Its Dams Collapse as a Tsunami Rolls in from Manila Bay?

Under the heading “Earthquakes and dams,” Mon Ramirez, a University of the Philippines (UP) trained engineer, posted on the Facebook last Monday, March 14, 2011, at 5:26 p.m.: “We have no nuclear power plant but we have more than 30 hydro-power plants with their associated dams that supply most of our electricity in combination with some geothermal plants and fossil-powered plants.”

Can these dams withstand a Japan 3-11 earthquake and not crumble down and flood the communities downstream like a tsunami? Two years ago, during a storm, when San Roque dam had to suddenly release some water, the devastation and deaths in the Pangasinan were record high. The warning system did not work well, too, resulting in more deaths.

Maybe today is the best time for the government and engineers and scientists to take a truly hard look at these dams and review contingencies if there are any in place.

Read the rest here: What If the Big One Hits Metro Manila and Its Dams Collapse as a Tsunami Rolls in from Manila Bay?

Magnitude 5.4 earthquake hits Mindoro on March 21 while it measures 3.0 in Quezon City

An intensity 5.4 earthquake on the Richter scale hit Mindoro on March 21, 2011 with this seismic event being felt as far away as Quezon City and the rest of Metro Manila, where it measured 3.0 on the Richer scale, according to the United States Geological Survey (see: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/usc0002804.php#summary).

A staggering 159 earthquakes ranging from intensity 1.9 to 6.1 on the Richter scale hit various provinces in the Philippines from January to this point in March of 2011, according to the USGS website, which cited data from the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS).

To say that the Philippines, like Japan is earthquake-prone would be an understatement, to say the very least.

As part of our public service to the Diliman and Quezon City areas, we are reposting our article as to what to do during an earthquake. We posted this article on March 26, 2010, as when an earthquake measuring intensity 6.0 on the Richter scale hit Mindoro on that same date, and where it was measured at intensity 4.0 on the Richter scale in Quezon City (see: http://diliman-diary.blogspot.com/2010/03/public-service-announcement-intensity.html).