NEW YORK, Dec. 31 (Xinhua) -- An earthquake measuring 5.0 on the Richter scale jolted 35km SSW of Maasin, Philippines at 14:53:33 GMT on Sunday, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The epicenter, with a depth of 49.45 km, was initially determined to be at 5.5423 degrees north latitude and 124.9429 degrees east longitude.