After the major earthquake of 7.2 magnitude hit the Visayan islands in the Philippines on October 15, 2013, experts are saying that it's only a matter of time when the next big quake will strike. 

Geologists from the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) are saying that the Philippines is prone to earthquakes because we have many active faults. They are saying that a newly-discovered or hidden fault might be the reason for the recent earthquake.


According to the experts, there is an earthquake fault that runs from the Sierra Madre mountains to Tagaytay in Luzon island which could cause a major earthquake.  Although no one can predict when something like this will happen, a fault moves every 200 to 400 years and the last time this one moved was 200 years ago.

The Philvocs experts are saying that we have to prepare for major earthquakes in the Philippines specially in the National Capital Region where the strength of the building structures cannot be assured and populations are very dense.  In the recent earthquake in Bohol, several lives were lost and major damage happened to structures particularly old churches that are built without rebars and by piling lime stones one on top of the other.  

Of course, it is not just people that are affected by disasters like earthquakes. I saw on the television last night that the Philippine tarsier, endemic to the Philippine archipelago and an endangered species also suffered some trauma due to the earthquake and aftershocks.