List Of Major Active Fault Lines In The Philippines.

Marikina Valley Fault :

Montalban
San Mateo
Marikina
Pasig
Taguig
Muntinlupa
San Pedro
Bian
Carmona
Santa Rosa
Calamba
Tagaytay
Oriental Mindoro

Western Philippine Fault :

Luzon Sea
Mindoro Strait
Panay Gulf
Sulu Sea

Eastern Philippine Fault :

Philippine Sea

Southern of Mindanao Fault :

Moro Gulf
Celebes Sea

Central Philippine Fault :

Entire Ilocos Norte
Aurora
Quezon
Masbate
Eastern Leyte
Southern Leyte
Agusan Del Norte
Agusan Del Sur
Davao del Norte

The earthquake that destroyed Guinsaugon is the Central Philippine Fault

The 1990 earthquake that destroyed Central Luzon and Baguio is also the Central Philippine Fault.

The MARIKINA VALLEY FAULT poses the greatest danger because it custs through all the modern and progressive
portions of Manila such as Eastwood, Rockwell, Ortigas Center, Bonifacio Global City,
Ayala Center, and Alabang. Also, the PhiVolcs people have warned that this fault line can move anytime because it is
already 11 years late for its movement.
Do analyze the figure provided below:

Figure A Tectonic setting of the Marikina Valley fault system (MVFS) in central Luzon, The Philippines. In A, subduction
zone trenches are shown by white barbed lines and other faults with high rates of Quaternary activity by heavy black lines.
White dots show locations of recent earthquakes on the Philippine fault in Luzon (magnitude 7.8; 1990) and the Aglubang
River fault in Mindoro (magnitude 7.1;1994).

Figure B shows how the Marikina Valley pull-apart basin (MVPB) may have been formed through extension caused by
clockwise rotation (dashed circle) and shearing of this part of central Luzon, which is caught between two active left-lateral
strike-slip faultsthe Philippine fault and the Lubang fault. A zone of extension and young volcanism has also influenced the
structural development of the valley.
Philippines are in the Pacific ring of fire, there are so many Major Faults in the country, and we have to trenches
surrounding both sides of our country the first one is located at the South China Sea and the other one is called the
Philippine trench which is located at the right side of our country, facing the pacific ocean.

Earthquakes: faults
Earthquakes can also occur far from the edges of tectonic plates, along faults. Faults are cracks in the
lithosphere caused by the stresses created as sections of a plate (or two plates) are moving in
different directions. In this case, the earthquake event is called a slip. There are a number of different
types of faults, but most can be divided into three categories: strike-slip faults, normal faults, and
thrust faults.

Image: Fault types

Strike-slip fault: a strike slip fault occurs in an area where two plates are sliding past each
other. In relation to the ground surface the slip involves sideway movement. Strike-slip faults are
found in California, the San Andreas fault being the most famous which has caused many powerful
earthquakes

Normal faults cracks where one mass of rock slides downward and pulls away from another
mass of rock. As these plates are slowly splitting apart and pulling away from each other the normal
faults are formed in this way. Normal faults are associated with downward movement on a sloping
fault as the two plates move apart. The stretching of the Earths crust is indicative of this type of
event. Deep sea ridges in the Atlantic and Pacific are where the largest normal faults are formed
along these ridges. Thrust faults are caused by plates pulling apart and colliding with continental
plates.

Reverse or Thrust faults: a thrust fault happens when plates are being pushed together. This
involves upward movement as the two plates collide and buckle upwards. This kind of event signifies
a compression of the Earths crust

Types of Faults

from: http://geomaps.wr.usgs.gov/

Now, consider this: if we hold the foot wall stationary, gravity will normally want to pull the hanging
wall down, right? Faults that move the way you would expect gravity to move them normally are
called normal faults!
Compare the image to the right with the normal fault above. Along a reverse fault one rocky block
is pushed up relative to rock on the other side.

Can you see the foot-shaped foot wall and thehanging wall resting or hanging above it? Think about
this: if we hold the foot wall stationary, where would the hanging wall go if we reversedgravity? The
hanging wall will slide upwards, right? When movement along a fault is thereverse of what you would
expect with normal gravity we call them reverse faults!
Strike-slip faults have a different type of movement than normal and reverse faults. You probably
noticed that the blocks that move on either side of a reverse or normal fault slide up or down along a
dipping fault surface.

All the stress and strain produced by moving plates builds up in the Earth's rocky crust until it simply can't
take it any more. All at once, CRACK!, the rock breaks and the two rocky blocks move in opposite
directions along a more or less planar fracture surface called a fault.
We classify faults by how the two rocky blocks on either side of a fault move relative to each other. The
one you see here is a normal fault. A normal fault drops rock on one side of the faultdown relative to the
other side. Take a look at the side that shows the fault and arrows indicating movement. See the block
farthest to the right that looks kind of like a foot? That's the foot wall. Now look at the block on the other
side of the fault. See how it's resting or hanging on top of the foot wall block? That's the hanging wall.

The Keweenaw Fault is a thrust fault, the name we give to

prominent reverse faults. They are driven by significant tectonic
events that affect large areas, like continental collisions.

More about Faults!

Ring of Fire

The Pacific Ring of Fire

Tectonic plates of the world

The Ring of Fire is an area in the basin of the Pacific Ocean where a large number of earthquakes and volcanic
eruptions occur. In a 40,000 km (25,000 mi) horseshoe shape, it is associated with a nearly continuous series
of oceanic trenches, volcanic arcs, and volcanic belts and/or plate movements. It has 452 volcanoes and is home to
over 75% of the world's active and dormant volcanoes.[1] The Ring of Fire is sometimes called the circum-Pacific
belt.
About 90%[2] of the world's earthquakes and 81%[3] of the world's largest earthquakes occur along the Ring of Fire.
The next most seismically active region (56% of earthquakes and 17% of the world's largest earthquakes) is
the Alpide belt, which extends from Java to the northern Atlantic Ocean via the Himalayas and southern Europe.[4][5]
All but 3 of the world's 25 largest volcanic eruptions of the last 11,700 years occurred at volcanoes in the Ring of
Fire.[6]
The Ring of Fire is a direct result of plate tectonics and the movement and collisions of lithospheric plates.[7] The
eastern section of the ring is the result of the Nazca Plate and the Cocos Plate being subducted beneath the
westward moving South American Plate. The Cocos Plate is being subducted beneath the Caribbean Plate,
in Central America. A portion of the Pacific Plate along with the small Juan de Fuca Plate are being subducted
beneath the North American Plate. Along the northern portion, the northwestward-moving Pacific plate is being
subducted beneath the Aleutian Islands arc. Farther west, the Pacific plate is being subducted along theKamchatka
Peninsula arcs on south past Japan. The southern portion is more complex, with a number of smaller tectonic plates
in collision with the Pacific plate from the Mariana Islands, the Philippines, Bougainville, Tonga, and New Zealand;
this portion excludes Australia, since it lies in the center of its tectonic plate. Indonesia lies between the Ring of
Fire along the northeastern islands adjacent to and including New Guinea and the Alpide belt along the south and
west from Sumatra, Java, Bali, Flores, and Timor. The famous and very active San Andreas Fault zone
of California is a transform fault which offsets a portion of the East Pacific Rise under southwestern United
States and Mexico. The motion of the fault generates numerous small earthquakes, at multiple times a day, most of
which are too small to be felt.[8][9] The active Queen Charlotte Fault on the west coast of the Haida Gwaii, British
Columbia, Canada, has generated three large earthquakes during the 20th century: a magnitude 7 event in 1929; a
magnitude 8.1 in 1949 (Canada's largest recorded earthquake); and a magnitude 7.4 in 1970. [10]

What is the Ring of Fire?

The Ring of Fire is an arc of volcanoes from New Zealand, along

eastern Asia across the Aleutian Islands of Alaska and along North
and South America. In the ring of fire 75% of the volcanoes are
active. The Ring of Fire borders mayor plates tectonics that cause
earthquakes and tsunami. Depending on the movements of the
plates the volcano or volcanoes may become active and erupt.
Bordering Japan there are 60 active volcanoes that could erupt at
major movements from the tectonic plates.

What created the Ring of Fire?

The Ring of Fire was created by sudbuction of tectonic plates in the

Pacific Ocean. While the plates are pushing against each other
land is being pushed upward and is being piled on to form the
volcano. While the subducting plate is going down it is pushing
molting lava up through the earths crust causing lava to go through
the opening of the land pushed upward. After the lava reaches the
top it blasts through the top sending lava upward into the sky.

How does the Ring of Fire affect the people in Asia

The Ring of Fire affects the people in Asia by the natural disasters
that could happen to Asia and bordering countrys. The people in
Asia cannot predict the events that might happen with the bordering
volcanoes but they can prepare for the events later on. Amoung the
people there is humungoes amounts of stress that biulds up due to
earthquakes that have happened before.

This theory helps to explain why the plates move. Convection currents created by huge temperature differences
between the core and the crust appear to drag the plates in different directions.

Plate tectonics: The main features are:

The Earth's surface is made up of a series of large plates

(like pieces of a giant jigsaw puzzle).

These plates are in constant motion travelling at a few

centimetres per year.

The ocean floors are continually moving, spreading from the

centre and sinking at the edges.

Convection currents beneath the plates move the plates

in different directions.

The source of heat driving the convection currents is

radioactive decay which is happening deep in the Earth.

The edges of these plates, where they move against each other, are sites of intense geologic activity, such as
earthquakes, volcanoes, and mountain building.

Plate tectonics is a relatively new theory and it wasn't until the 1960's that Geologists, with the help of ocean
surveys, began to understand what goes on beneath our feet.

Where is the Evidence for Plate Tectonics?

The continents seem to fit together like a giant jigsaw puzzle:
If you look at a map, Africa seems to snuggle nicely into the
east coast of South America and the Caribbean sea. In 1912 a
German Scientist called Alfred Wegener proposed that these
two continents were once joined together then somehow
drifted apart. He proposed that all the continents were once
stuck together as one big land mass called Pangea. He
believed that Pangea was intact until about 200 million years
ago

Click here for some evidence of this theory

CONTINENTAL DRIFT
The idea that continents can drift about is called, not
surprisingly, CONTINENTAL DRIFT.
When Wegener first put forward the idea in 1912 people
thought he was nuts. His big problem was that he knew the
continents had drifted but he couldn't explain how they drifted.
The old (AND VERY WRONG!!) theory before this time was the
"Contraction theory" which suggested that the planet was once
a molten ball and in the process of cooling the surface cracked
and folded up on itself. The big problem with this idea was that
all mountain ranges should be approximately the same age,
and this was known not to be true. Wegener's explanation was
that as the continents moved, the leading edge of the
continent would encounter resistance and thus compress and
fold upwards forming mountains near the leading edges of the
drifting continents. Wegener also suggested that India drifted
northward into the Asia forming the Himalayas and of course
Mount Everest.

SEA FLOOR SPREADING

It is hard to imagine that these great big solid slabs of rock could wander around the globe. Scientists needed a clue as
to how the continents drifted. The discovery of the chain of mountains that lie under the oceans was the clue that they
were waiting for.

PLATES ARE CREATED: In the diagram below you can see that the continental crust is beginnin
divergence occurs within a continent it is called rifting. A plume of hot magma rises from deep w

This is an example of a
divergent plate boundary
(where the plates move
away from each other).
The Atlantic Ocean was
created by this process.
The mid-Atlantic Ridge is
an area where new sea
floor is being created.

As the rift valley expands

two continental plates
have been constructed
from the original one.
The molten rock
continues to push the
crust apart creating new
crust as it does.

As the rift valley

expands, water collects
forming a sea. The MidAtlantic Ridge is now
2,000 metres above the
adjacent sea floor, which
is at a depth of about
6,000 metres below sea
level.

The sea floor continues to

spread and the plates get
bigger and bigger. This
process can be seen all over
the world and produces
about 17 square kilometres
of new plate every year.

Picture the following in your mind:

1.

You have a nine piece jigsaw (now there's a challenge).

2.

The piece in the middle starts to grow.

3.

It gets bigger and bigger.

What do you think will happen to the puzzle? ANSWER

Now let's think back to our plates being created at the mid-ocean ridges, it seems to be a good idea but if this is the
only type of plate movement then the world would get bigger and bigger. In fact the world has remained the same
size. So if plates are being created at the mid-ocean ridges then they must be being consumed somewhere else in the
world.

PLATES ARE DESTROYED (SUBDUCTION):

This is a convergent plate

boundary, the plates move
towards each other. The
amount of crust on the
surface of the earth remains
relatively constant. Therefore,
when
plates diverge (separate)
and form new crust in one
area, the plates
must converge (come
together) in another area and
be destroyed. An example of
this is the Nazca plate being
subducted under the South
American plate to form the
Andes Mountain Chain.

Here we can see the oceanic plate moving from left to right. The top layer of the mantle and the crust (all called the lithosphere

Solidify slowly underground as intrusive igneous rock such as granite.

or

Reach the surface and erupt as lava flows. Cooling rapidly to form extrusive igneous rock such as basalt.

The floor of the Easter Pacific is moving towards South America at a rate of 9 centimetres per year. It might not seem
much but over the past 10 million years the Pacific crust has been subducted under South America and has sunk
nearly 1000 kilometres into the Earth's interior.

Types of Convergent Boundaries

The example above showed what happened when the dense oceanic plate subducts under a lighter continental plate
(ie, oceanic - continental). Two other types of subduction can take place:
When two oceanic plate meet
each other (oceanic-oceanic)
this often results in the
formation of an island arc
system. As the subducting
oceanic crust melts as it goes
deeper into the Earth, the
newly-created magma rises to
the surface and forms
volcanoes. If the activity
continues, the volcano may
grow tall enough to breech
the surface of the ocean
creating an island.
The key to subduction seems to be water which acts as a kind of lubricant as the heavier plate slips underneath the
lighter plate.
I must not forget to mention the Himalayas and Mount Everest because this is the third example of plate movement

Millions of years ago

India and an ancient
ocean called the
Tethys Ocean were sat
on a tectonic plate.
This plate was moving
northwards towards
Asia at a rate of 10
centimetres per year.
The Tethys oceanic
crust was being
subducted under the
Asian Continent. The
ocean got
progressively smaller
until about 55 milion
years ago when India
'hit' Asia. There was
no more ocean left to
lubricate the
subduction and so
the plates welled up
to form the High
Plateau of Tibet and
the Himalayan
Mountains. The
continental crust
under Tibet is over 70
kilometres thick. North
of Katmandu, the
capital of Nepal, is a
deep gorge in the
Himalayas. the rock
here is made of schist
and granite with
contorted and folded
layers of marine
sediments which were
deposited by the
Tethys ocean over 60
million years ago.

The fourth type of plate movement involves plates sliding past one another without the construction or destruction of
crust. This boundary is called a conservation zone because plate is neither created nor destroyed An example of such
a boundary is the San Andreas fault in California. The force needed to move billions of tonnes of rock is unimaginable.
When plates move some of the energy is released as earthquakes.