© DENRPart of the Mindanao shoreline was extended by up to 200 meters and exposed previously submerged marine habitats following a powerful tremor on June 8, 2026.
Arsenio Butil Jr. fell to his knees and began to pray when last week's deadly 7.8-magnitude earthquake began shaking his home on the coast of the southern Philippines.
When he opened his eyes, he saw a once-familiar shoreline changing in real time, with swaths of previously submerged coral suddenly pushing above the waterline.
The June 8, 2026 quake, driven by a shifting of the nearby Cotabato Trench, toppled buildings, triggered landslides and killed at least 76 people on the southern island of Mindanao.
The tectonic forces at work also thrust chunks of the island's coastline upward in a phenomenon known as "coastal uplift," leaving stretches of shore unrecognizable to families who have spent their whole lives there.
© European Union, Copernicus Sentinel-2 imageryThe image on the left, acquired by one of the Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellites on 1 June 2026, shows the coastline of southern Mindanao before the earthquake. The image on the right, acquired on 14 June 2026, depicts the same area after the earthquake, with newly exposed reefs and seabed.
The tectonic forces thrust chunks of the Mindanao's coastline upward, leaving stretches of shore unrecognisable to families who have spent their whole lives there.
Butil, a fisherman and pastor living in Sarangani province's Glan, told AFP the June 8 quake was the largest that he had ever felt.
"The people were extremely panicked," he said.
"What I saw at the shoreline was that the water receded. After a while, I saw it ... slowly returning. And then it receded again. Maybe three or four times," Butil said.
"The fish were dying and floating."
The Cotabato Trench, which lies as close as 50 kilometers (31 miles) off Mindanao, is the site of frequent seismic activity, including a "swarm" of thousands of mostly small tremors recorded in January.
A U.N. disaster risk reduction report released in mid-May hinted they could be a precursor to a large earthquake.
"What they see now is their new coastline," Nane Danlag of the Philippines' seismology center told AFP from her office in General Santos City on Friday, adding the change was permanent.
The June 8 quake triggered landslides and killed at least 76 people on the southern island of Mindanao, and created new coastline.
Pointing at a map, she said the affected area stretched between two towns nearly 100 kilometers (62 miles) apart.
As shocking as the changes to the coastline appeared, the shifting of the earth's crust that created it was a "natural movement," she said.
"This has been going on for thousands of years."
'What everyone fears'
In the hills above a neighboring village, about 100 men, women and children who fled to higher ground when the earthquake struck were still living in an encampment visited by AFP.
© Ferdinandh CabreraA powerful Philippine earthquake forced seafloor out of the water to make new shoreline on the island of Mindanao, June 8, 2026
Many remain convinced a tsunami could yet strike, he said, as government aid workers ladled rice porridge into bowls for the evacuees.
"(The seabed) rose ... It's not the same as it was before," Malimpnig said.
"What if the sea surges forward? That is what everyone fears," he said, adding their new home atop the hill felt far safer.
Ten kilometers (6 miles) away, Edzel Baylon, a staff member at the Isla Jardin del Mar resort, bemoaned a newly changed landscape that spelled trouble for a destination that touted a white-sand beach holiday experience.
"It has a huge effect on the resort, because the main draw for customers is the sea," she said, pointing at an idyllic beachfront now separated from the water by exposed coral.
"Sadly, today, our sea has become shallow. It's no longer suitable for swimming."
Since the June 8 quake, more than 8,500 aftershocks have shaken the region, according to the seismology agency.
In Glan, residents were thinking about next steps, but not yet ready to attempt to rebuild their destroyed homes, said Butil, the pastor.
"The ground there is cracked, and the cracks are long. That is why this area would be very dangerous if another earthquake as strong follows," he said.
Minutes later, a 5.4 tremor shook the ground underneath his feet.
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