Moro Gura

The Midnight Killer

presented by -----------------

03-10-22

Geography --
Class: ------------

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Content
Subject Page(s)

Summary 3

Data & Statistics / Profile of Event 4 - 13

Description of Event 14

Human causes and Activities 15 - 16

Conclusion 17

References 18 - 19

Please note that references are at pages 18-19 designated to specific numbers (e.g [8]),
to make this project more tidy and neat.

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Summary
On August 17, 1976, Just about 11 minutes after the last stroke of midnight which
was thought to be just another ordinary night, at 00:11:06 A.M (GMT +8) local
time or 16:11:06.PM (UTC), a terrifying earthquake struck the island of Mindanao
one of the 3 biggest islands in the Philippines, 950 kilometres south of the
capital of Philippines, Manila. Causing a tsunami that devastated more than 700
kilometres of coastline along Moro Gulf in the North Celebes Sea with its
epicentre at (06.292° N, 124.09° E) , near the town of Lebak in Sultan Kudarat, in
a region of the Celebes Sea. At the time, the people of the Philippines had no
idea what was yet to happen being in a deep slumber. The Cotabato Trench, was
a less well-known trench system in the Philippines which is to be in a
subduction zone, produced this offshore event, making it the strongest
tsunamigenic earthquake to have struck Mindanao in the previous 2 decades.
Rather than the earthquake having most of the influence towards the
destruction and casualties, it was an earthquake that caused the colossal
devastating tsunami. The destruction was greatly influenced by the tsunami that
later swooped in a few minutes after the earthquake. The earthquake mostly
affected the cities and provinces of Cotabato, while the tsunami wreaked havoc
on the provinces surrounding the Moro Gulf, particularly on the coastlines of
Pagadian City. Surveys conducted at the time indicated that the tsunami was to
blame for 95% of those who went missing, 65% of the injured, and 85% of the
fatalities. Thousands of people were left dead, other individuals were left
homeless or missing, and an inevitable sum of finance of $134 million were lost
with the damages to homes as the sea expanded its rage until it returned back to
its natural course. In addition to buildings used for residential, commercial
purposes, destroyed properties also contain bancas, which collectively
supported hundreds of families.

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Data & Statistics / Profile of Event
Let’s first note that there is an unbelievable amount of information spread
throughout the news, internet and stories however, I will choose the most
reliable, most common occurring information and most accurate information
with my researching skills possible.

Code name ISC event 709878

Event code MINDANAO1976

Foreshocks & Aftershocks

Foreshocks
Six events were recorded in August 1976 that had epicentres in the same region
as the main shock and might be regarded as foreshocks of the Moro Gulf
earthquake, according to an analysis of seismic records for the month previous
to August 17 of the same year. In addition, two earthquakes that were felt in
Zamboanga City a month earlier and with epicentres nearby the main shock
were also confirmed to have occurred. Neither the PAGASA Observatory in
Quezon City nor any of its field sites detected these two occurrences. The total
number of foreshocks now stands at eight, of which three are felt events with
intensities ranging from I to IV.

Aftershocks
The PAGASA seismic network provided data that was used to plot about forty 40
aftershocks. However, numerous aftershocks were reportedly felt locally and
recorded, the majority of which had Rossi-Forel intensity up to Intensity VI. The
Commission on Volcanology, which is now the Philippine Institute of
Volcanology and Seismology, monitored aftershocks in Cotabato City for a
period of time, recording an average of roughly 140 aftershocks every day. A
single-component Kinemetrics seismometer and a three-component Hosaka
seismograph were used to begin monitoring on August 18th, 1976.

This information was retrieved according to reference [2]. To which was the only
report I found from my sources rewritten by myself.

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Location
Northern and Southern Mindanao, Philippines
Noted to be a conversion plates in a seduction zone, and
so for earthquakes to occur being in the Philippine and
Eurasian Plates

The tsunami affected 700 kilometres of coastline, with

Pagadian City, Cotabato City, Zamboanga City, and Lebak
in Sultan Kudarat experiencing the highest waves.

The quake was widely felt throughout the region.

PAGASA in the Philippines gave the following Modified
Mercalli Scale Intensities for Mindanao and the islands to the north.

Intensity VII - Cotabato City, Jolo-Sulu, Zamboanga City

Intensity VI - Basilan City; Pagadian City, Dipolog City,

Malaybalay-Bukidnon

Intensity V - Cagayan de Oro City, Davao City, General

Santos City

Intensity IV - Dumaguete City, Hinatuan Surigao del Sur,

Tagbilaran-Bohol, Cebu City, Surigao-Surigao del Norte

Intensity II - Roxas City, Iloilo City, Tacloban City,

Legaspi City, Palo-Leyte, Catbalogan-Samar

Sourced all from reference [4]

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Timeline
Moro Gulf’s name is recognized in hall of fame being known as “The Midnight
Killer” and reason being it was during the dark night where the “Killer” would
strike. While some sources report it is 16:10 (UTC) the time the event happened,
this is actually inaccuracy due to being 8 hours behind the local time of
philippines and due to this UTC has delay to what time it really occurred, many
sources and websites blunder the event being 10 minutes past 4.PM such as from
reference [4] or reference [5] or reference [6].
But it is rather 11 minutes past 4.PM given an example from reference [7] and
reference [3].
Given that we can conclude that we should use the local time(GMT+8) being
00:11:06 which is a much more accurate answer and time that we can retrieve as
more reliable data such as from reference [1]. If we want to be even more
accurate we can also say that the event happened exactly at the local
time(GMT+8) of 00:11:06:86 sourced from reference [3].

The earthquake lasted 7.6 seconds according to reference [3] and devastatingly
enough, which 2-5 minutes later according to reference [6], the tsunami swept
in causing havoc.
Reporting many various heights from eyewitness’s accounts, estimating 9 metres
high reporting in reference [6], reference [5], reference [8], and waves have
been reported to be inundated as far as 75m to 200 m to as far as 1km in land.

Epicentre
We’re given up the rounded up Latitude and Longitude of (06.3° N, 124.0° E) in
reference [2], But more we can find a more accurate Latitude and Longitude
(06.292° N, 124.09° E) referenced from Engdahl E.R., van der Hilst, R. Buland and
retrieved by 2011 and can be sourced from reference [7] and reference [3].
To which the most accurate depth I found was 33km from reference [3] being
backed up with reference [8]. Hence, the earthquake was considered to be a
shallow Earthquake rather than a deep Earthquake

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Magnitude
Many answers were given by different sources to which I decided to find the
Magnitude of the main earthquake by the mode of my data and so,

[2] reports a magnitude of 8.1

[7] reports a magnitude of 8.0

[4] reports a magnitude of 8.0

[5] reports a magnitude of 7.9 by Richter scale

[6] reports a magnitude of 8.0 by the Ritcher scale

[9] reports a magnitude of 8.0

[3] reports a 8.0 by moment magnitude, 7.9 by surface-wave magnitude, 6.4 by

body-wave magnitude, 6 by the Modified Mercalli intensity

[1] reports a magnitude of 8.0 on the GCMT Scale

So we can conclude that 8.0 is our mode and is the most frequently showing up.

We’ll derive this data into our answer and say Moro Gulf had a Magnitude of 8.0
by the mode of data retrieved.

Tsunami description
2-5 minutes later according to reference [6], the tsunami swept in causing
havoc.
Reporting many various heights from eyewitness’s accounts, estimating 9 metres
high reporting in reference [6], reference [5], reference [8], and waves have
been reported to be inundated as far as 75m to 200 m to as far as 1km in land.
The Tsunami was reported to be a Megatrust Earthquake.

This devastating monster ran along, destroying the border of more than 700km
of coastline.

Casualties
According to surveys during the event, the tsunami was responsible for 85% of
deaths, 65% of injuries and 95% of those missing. From reference [2] and
reference [3] which also can be confirmed by EERI Reconnaissance Team,

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Mindanao, Philippines Earthquake, August 17, 1976. Reconnaissance Report,
Earthquake Engineering Research Institute in 1977.

To which 8000 lives were devastatingly lost in coastal communities, dead or

missing, and in the neighbouring Sulu Islands, 1200 of which were lost by the
earthquake’s effects and the rest to the total effects.

By earthquake effects there were 3500 injured with a spiking number of 10000
injuries in the aftermath of the total effect.

If not taken away towards the afterlife you may also possibly end up being 1 of
90000 people being homeless in the aftermath of the event.

Interestingly enough, we can get a more accurate data from reference [2]

Area Dead Missing Injured Homeless*

Region 9 1,440 909 7,701 49,848

Region 12 3,351 1,379 2,227 43,534

This information is extremely tragic being 1/6th of the total population of

Mindanao. Mindanao had a total population of 600079 by 6 May 1970 from
reference [10].

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Buildings
According to reference [2]. An inevitable amount of buildings and man-made
structures were destroyed throughout the event in the aftermath, this including
houses and apartments which may be uncountable being a highly dense
populated area to which thousands of people used to live within. These buildings
and man-made structures include:

-COTABATO CHINESE SCHOOL GYMNASIUM

A reinforced concrete and wood structure

-ADMINISTRATION BUILDING
a two-story building (designed for three stories) with reinforced concrete frame

-HARVARDIAN COLLEGE
It had a reinforced concrete frame with reinforced concrete slabs at the second
level and at the exterior walkways at the third, fourth and fifth levels. The fifth
story was constructed completely of wood and the roof had GI sheeting. The
building was reportedly designed for three stories with the fourth and fifth floor
added later with no strengthening of the lower stories

-NOTRE DAME UNIVERSITY

The site has wet and soft marshy ground.

-THE AUDITORIUM AND SCIENCE BUILDING

-THE NEW RESIDENCE HALL
-THE TECHNICAL SCHOOL
A two-story building built in 1965. It had a concrete frame with a concrete
two-way slab floor.

-DAWNS HOTEL
A six-story reinforced concrete frame and wall building.

-D’MAX RESTAURANT
a combination of reinforced concrete and wood.

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-IMPERIAL HOTEL #1
a four-story reinforced concrete building

-IMPERIAL HOTEL #2
a six-story building with reinforced concrete f

-MELBOURNE HOTEL
A three-story building with reinforced concrete frame with masonry infilled
panels

-NEW SOCIETY HOTEL

A four-story reinforced concrete frame building with shear walls and reinforced
concrete slabs for its floors and roof

-SAGUITTARIUS HOTEL
A four-story structure with reinforced concrete frame

-SULTAN HOTEL
A five-story building that suffered the collapse of the first floor

-COTABATO CINEMA
This is a large structure to the rear of Sultan Hotel. When the hotel collapsed, it
caused severe structural damage to the theatre complex.

-FRANCEL THEATRE
A reinforced concrete and wood building

-RITA THEATRE
This was a two-story 12 m tall reinforced concrete frame building -

-IMMACULATE CONCEPTION CHURCH

Its grounds were very soft and the church was obviously not built on piles

-TAMONTAKA CATHOLIC CHURCH

A structure made of unreinforced brick walls with interior timber columns and
wooden roof said to have been built by the Spaniards around 1872. It was built on
soft marshy soil. Before the earthquake, the building already had some structural

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cracks that could be either due to a previous earthquake or a differential
settlement. The church suffered severe damage.

-AMICUS BUILDING
-BOSTON BAKERY
A two-story reinforced concrete building built

-COTABATO AUTO SUPPLY

A three-story building with reinforced concrete frame, concrete floor and
masonry infilled exterior walls. Its partitions were made of timber and plywood.
A one-story concrete lean-to behind this building also collapsed.

-COTABATO FIRE and POLICE STATION

-FIRST GIFT AND BOOKSTORE

A four-story building with a reinforced concrete frame resting on a timber pile
foundation. This was also known as the Yap building after its owner.

-LCT HARDWARE AND AUTO SUPPLY

A two-story reinforced concrete structure with wood trusses and GI sheet roof.

-MELINEEN BUILDING
A two-story reinforced concrete

-SOUTH SEAS TRADING

This was a three-story building. It had a concrete frame and floor slab.

-TAN BO BUILDING
A four-story building. Its frame was of reinforced concrete while the walls are
infilled with hollow blocks. The whole structure was built on timber piles.

-TISON BUILDING
This was the only building in Cotabato City known to have been designed with
seismic considerations. It was built on precast concrete friction piles on good

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soil. It survived the earthquake with only a slight crack in a concrete block
partition.

-WATERFRONT WAREHOUSES
A large number of warehouses. They look like they were made of masonry walls,
timber trusses, and corrugated GI sheets. They were poorly built. All of the
warehouses collapsed.

-QUIRINO BRIDGE
This is a four-span structural steel bridge.

-TAMONTAKA BRIDGE
This bridge spans about 230 m across Tamontaka River The bridge is made up of
six spans resting on pile-supported piers. The girders, piers and piles are made
of reinforced concrete.

-ZAMBOANGA CITY
Fourteen buildings in this City of Flowers were partially damaged while
twenty-six buildings sustained minor damage. The City Hall bore noticeable
cracks along its façade. Ateneo de Zamboanga sustained failures at the sill level
of its columns on the fourth floor due probably to poor concreting and column
weakening because of water seepage from the GI downpipes embedded in the
columns. Zamboanga Agricultural and Engineering College sustained damage to
columns due to failure at end moments.

-PAGADIAN CITY
Some houses made of reinforced concrete hollow blocks were able to withstand
the force of the waves and also served as protection to other houses made of
light materials. The approach to the Pagadian City wharf settled down, causing
cracks in the slabs of the approach area and in the concrete deck. The five-story
reinforced concrete building of Saint Columban College had noticeable cracks in
the masonry infilled walls. Shear cracks in two columns were observed at the
junction.

Credit to reference [2] for the list of buildings, slightly rewritten by me.

We can undoubtedly see that most of these man-made structures are made from
cheap quality materials used for mass made production such as concrete, some
even being hollow from inside the frame of the building, while some man-made

12
structures even rest on reliable hard and sturdy land but rather on soft, marshy
soil. These buildings report to have no seismic proof installed within the
buildings and so we can justify that Philippines was unprepared for this event
and can be considered as an undeveloped country using cheap materials, yet
having a dense population within that area.

More proof of this is from reference [11] which we can’t retrieve data from the
year 1976 but we can see from the earliest report in 2006 by Ariel Arcebuche
ONG,

stating “For any

occupancy, the most
common building type in
the Philippines is
reinforced concrete.
However, higher
strength demands of the
updated National
Structural Code of the
Philippines (NSCP) 2001
Edition have introduced
uncertainty regarding
the seismic response of
existing buildings.
Likewise, inadequate
ductility has given rise
to the possibility of excessive failure, if not total collapse. Poor implementation
and enforcement of the code for reasons that go beyond just technical, such as
those that are related to socio-economic, cultural and even political issues,
further exacerbate the predicament concerning the structural soundness of
these buildings.”

From this statement we can see that from 2006 the most common building type
was still concrete, or else a cheap mass production material for construction and
only demanded in 2001 by the National Structural Code of the Philippines(NSCP)
for more seismic proof buildings. This yet again shows another example for how
unprepared the Philippines was dating back to the tragic event that would’ve had
the Philippines much more underdeveloped in 1976.

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Description of Event
In the report Moro Gulf Tsunami of 17 August 1976 by Fr Victor Ballido and
Zinnia Astilla of the Manila Observatory for the Special Committee on Tsunami
Warning System gathered the following statements from the witnesses:

“A housewife of Pagadian City said that at about 12:15am, the earth started to
move. She woke her 10 children up to evacuate to higher grounds knowing that a
tidal wave would follow a powerful tremor. Five minutes later, giant waves roared
half-a-kilometer inland washing away hundreds of houses along the coast.”
-from the Philippine Daily Express

“I couldn’t stand up, I was dizzy and nauseated on feeling the earthquake. After a
while talking with fear-striken people I went to my room but came down at once
upon hearing a loud rumbling like many trucks together. Someone shouted it
was the surf. The noise had been the roar of a giant wave which swept little huts
on stilts.”
–from the Asian Report

“Ms. Norma Uday, a woman who was 23 at the time of the earthquake with 2
children stated, “Other people built stores beside the highways since the bridge
was damaged. One of my children, it was the scariest part I ever experienced,
the window almost fell into his head, we’re very alarmed at the time. However,
when we’re leaving the area the shaking is not that much. It’s still okay, but it still
has aftershocks.” from reference [12].

“We were asleep. I woke up as the house rocked like a boat caught in a storm…
We all rushed out of the house… for safer ground. Seconds after, the killer wave
engulfed our house. It was a nightmare beyond belief.”
–from Warlito Fausto, a 33-year-old route helper

“It is a very good example of a threat of a sudden onset of an event after an

earthquake that people need to know… People need to know which areas will be
affected, where they will go if they will be evacuated and where the safe
evacuation centres should be located.”
—PHIVOLCS Director Renato Solidum

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Human causes and activities
It is most certainly and undeniable that the people of the philippines and their
activities were one significant cause of the tragic event such as their dense
packed population in Mindanao which was 600097 in total from reference [10]
which was recorded in 1970 May 6, their soft, marsy soil due to their
overcropping and over farming from the Philippines being an undeveloped
country to which is highly dependent on this, and their poor infrastructure such
as having no any anti-seismic systems installed in buildings and use of cheap
materials such as concrete due to mass population and poverty.

Mindanao was extremely unfortunate to as well be striked by the event over

midnight, this would’ve made them unprepared for, unexpected and unaware
being deeply asleep.

Government expenditure
Government expenditure shows us other reasons why human causes and
activities may also be one of the reasons for this devastating event.

In reference [13]. It states that in 1976 the Philippines had expenditure in the
following:

We can see that the Government made no expenditure in Infrastructure that

year and not only that but rather as well to put only 5.3% in Maintenance,
operations which is not a whole lot considering that most of the buildings were

15
still completely mass produced construction with cheap materials that would’ve
already been worn off and weaken before the time of the earthquake which
shows even more undeniable proof that they were unprepared and not
developed enough to withstand this event.

Agriculture
Agriculture was one of the reasons for the soft, poor, marshy land that was
completely unreliable for construction. We can see from reference [10]

There is mass production and overcropping such as Rough rice, Corn Bananas,
Mango, Pineapple, Other Fruits and Nuts, Citrus, Root Crops, Vegetables
including Onion and Potatoes, Beans and peas, Coffee , Cacao, Peanuts, Coconut,
Sugarcane, Abaca, especially Tobacco and Virginia Tobacco, Ramie, Rubber,
Maguey and Kapok throughout the years in the philippines up until even now,
this shows that philippines is a very underdeveloped country that is highly relied
in crops.

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Conclusion & Evaluation
This is a very sad and tragic event where many people’s lives were lost, missing,
destroyed to where most who live won’t recover from poverty, starvation or
dehydration after the wreck of the tsunami destroying everything, to those who
are fortunate enough to not lose their houses and end up being 1 of 90000
people who lost their homes. Mindanao was completely unprepared for Moro
Gulf 1976 August 16, 00:11:86.
I personally think that there wasn’t really any way of the government being able
to prevent the amount of damage done to the structures due to the tsunami that
will inevitable destroy anything even with anti-seismic systems, nor would the
government be able to have a quick response time being in the middle of the
night however even so, the Philippine government still shown dedication to help
the people of Philippines at the aftermath of this havoc including relief
operations being organised in Manila such as supplying food including protein,
rich biscuits, dry milk and soya flour were rushed to the stricken areas in the
south with help coming from national charities, the Government of Manila
proclaimed a national proclamanity and drafted thousands of troops to help with
rescue work and rehabilitation, army personnel were helping people to find
relatives.
So many tragedies are yet to face the country known as the “land of smiles” yet
the Philippines still bond together to face these tragedies together no matter
how much havoc is spilled onto them with a smile on their face. Which is
something I find truly amazing and fascinating about the Philippines. A
document made in Youtube can be seen in reference [14]. This video is of the
aftermath and the government helping the people of the Philippines.
From this I have learned that the Philippines is a very undeveloped country,
inside of the Philippine and Eurasian plates, to which are convergent plates
possibly ruining over 108000 peoples lives or 1/6th of the people in Mindanao
and that the earthquake was not the main cause of the destruction but rather
the tsunami.

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References
http://isc-mirror.iris.washington.edu/cgi-bin/FormatBibprint.pl?evid=709878
[1]

https://www.phivolcs.dost.gov.ph/index.php/earthquake/destructive-earthqua
ke-of-the-philippines/2-uncategorised/208-1976-august-17-ms7-9-moro-gulf-
earthquake
[2]

https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/hazel/view/hazards/earthquake/event-more-info
/4739
[3]

http://www.drgeorgepc.com/Tsunami1976Phillipines.html
[4]

https://whatalife.ph/looking-back-what-filipinos-learned-from-the-1976-moro
-gulf-earthquake/
[5]

https://www.rappler.com/moveph/102827-1976-moro-gulf-earthquake-tsunam
i/
[6]

https://earthquake.usgs.gov/product/poster/usp000hgmh/us/1538164574069
/poster.pdf
[7]

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Details-of-Earthquakes-included-in-this
-study_tbl1_346650983
[8]

https://www.sutori.com/en/story/disasters-in-the-philippines--dsGmcj88GC
YXHP1erQbKWhH4

[9]

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https://psa.gov.ph/sites/default/files/1976%20Philippine%20Statistical%20Yearbook%20%28PSY%29.pdf

[10]

https://iisee.kenken.go.jp/syndb/?action=list

[11]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qS6uhNq2_8I
[12]

https://www.nber.org/system/files/chapters/c9048/c9048.pdf
[13]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gh4ELV9ExP0&t=152s
[14]

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