Location:

Period:

8 May 2022 02:12:43 - 8 May 2022 16:34:28 (14 hours 21 minutes)

Volcanoes in 100km radius:

None

Earthquakes:

M 7.0+:

M 7.2; 196 km SSE of Sarangani, Philippines; (11 Feb 2009) (62km from the swarm center)

9 swarms found nearby.

2000

PS20000418.1(159.9km)

17 Apr

1 day 6 hours

7 earthquakes

2009

PS20090211.1(42.4km)

11 Feb

2 days 11 hours

67 earthquakes

S20090212.1(35.7km)

11 Feb

2 days 13 hours

50 earthquakes

PS20090316.1(23.9km)

16 Mar

3 hours

5 earthquakes

PS20090614.1(199.3km)

14 Jun

15 hours

5 earthquakes

2014

PS20141221.1(180.6km)

21 Dec

2 hours

5 earthquakes

2019

PS20190106.1(142.5km)

6 Jan

20 hours

8 earthquakes

2023

S20230118.1(93.0km)

18 Jan

3 days 19 hours

63 earthquakes

PS20230124.1(69.5km)

23 Jan

1 day 3 hours

7 earthquakes

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Seismic Swarm PS20220508.1 Southeast of Sarangani, Philippines

A seismic swarm designated PS20220508.1 occurred southeast of Sarangani in the Philippines on 8 May 2022. The sequence began at 02:12 UTC and concluded at 16:34 UTC, spanning 14 hours and 21 minutes. During this period, five earthquakes were recorded at a location 247 km southeast of Sarangani.

The events unfolded as follows. At 02:12:43, a magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck at a depth of 10 km. Six minutes later, at 02:18:52, a magnitude 5.0 event occurred at the same depth. Ten minutes after that, at 02:28:59, the largest shock in the swarm reached magnitude 5.2, again at 10 km depth. Activity paused until 12:17:27, when a magnitude 5.0 earthquake was recorded at 18 km depth. The final event took place at 16:34:28, registering magnitude 4.6 at 39 km depth.

This swarm reflects typical clustered seismicity in a tectonically active margin. The Philippine archipelago lies along the Pacific Ring of Fire, where the Philippine Sea Plate subducts beneath the Sunda Plate along the Philippine Trench to the east and interacts with the Cotabato Trench system to the south. Mindanao and surrounding waters experience frequent moderate earthquakes due to these subduction processes, strike-slip faulting along the Philippine Fault, and regional compression.

Historical data indicate seven swarms have occurred in the same source region since 1 January 2000. These took place in 2000 (one swarm), 2009 (four swarms), 2014 (one swarm), and 2019 (one swarm). A notable strong earthquake of magnitude 7.2 struck on 11 February 2009, centered 196 km south-southeast of Sarangani and approximately 62 km from the 2022 swarm epicenter.

Such swarms provide insight into stress release along subduction-related structures without producing a single dominant mainshock. Depths ranging from 10 km to 39 km align with the upper portion of the subducting slab and overlying crust in this sector of the Philippine mobile belt.

Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) regional tectonic summaries
United States Geological Survey (USGS) earthquake catalog and tectonic framework reports
SeismoSight internal swarm classification PS20220508.1