The 2002 Mindanao earthquake struck the Philippines at 05:16 Philippine Standard Time on March 6 (21:16 Coordinated Universal Time on March 5). The world's sixth most powerful earthquake of the year, it registered a magnitude of 7.5 and was a megathrust earthquake. It originated near the Cotabato Trench, a zone of deformation situated between the Philippine Sea Plate and the Sunda Plate, and occurred very near to the Philippines' strongest earthquake for the 20th century, the 1918 Celebes Sea earthquake.