It is now clear that more than half the fatalities from last week’s earthquake in the Philippines were caused by landslides.
In the areas of the Philippines affected by the 8 June 2026 M=7.8 earthquake offshore Mindanao, operations have shifted from rescue to recovery. Inquirer has an interesting report about information provided by an official from the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) today. The death toll has risen to 65, but a further 36 people are missing. There is now no prospect of their having survived. The report notes that:
The people reported to be missing were likewise due to earthquake-induced landslides, he further noted.
Asked whether there were still any signs of life among the locations of the reported missing persons, Alejandro pointed to Jose Abad Santos town in Davao Occidental.
“One of the areas there, I think, the team has already pulled out or called off the search and rescue because it’s immense. It was a mountain that really came down, so it’s very hard,” he explained.
There is now a good Sentinel 2 image, collected on 14 June 2026, showing the area affected by the earthquake. There are some fascinating areas. Thus, for example, this image is centred on [5.63777, 125.45305]:-
Sentinel 2 image dated 14 June 2026 showing landslides triggered by the Mindanao earthquake.
There are at least two, and maybe three, large (>500 m long) landslides in this image, and a host of other failures too. Meanwhile, to the north, centred on [5.75674, 125.55459] we have this:-
Sentinel 2 image dated 14 June 2026 showing landslides triggered by the Mindanao earthquake.
The latest NDRRMC Situation Report indicates that 66 damaging landslides have been recorded.
To date, I have seen reports of 17 confirmed fatalities in landslides, plus the 36 missing, so at least 53 of the 101 fatalities are from landslides. However, it is likely that there are some that I have yet to track down.
Return to The Landslide Blog homepage
Text © 2026. The authors.
CC BY-NC-ND 3.0Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.
