Undersea 6.7 quake strikes off Vanuatu
AUSTRALIA: A strong 6.7 magnitude earthquake struck the South
Pacific island nation of Vanuatu on Tuesday, prompting local authorities
to issue possible tsunami alerts to outlying islands.
Residents in the town of Luganville on Vanuatu's Espiritu Santo
island felt the quake but said it did not cause any damage and there had
been no change in sea level.
"We had divers in the water this morning and all have reported
feeling the shake but nothing more," Barry Holland from Aqua Marine in
Luganville told Reuters by telephone.
Geoscience Australia's duty seismologist David Jepson said the quake
was at a moderate depth, which made a tsunami unlikely. "For this
magnitude, definitely not a tsunami," said Jepson. The quake at 9:18
a.m. (2218 GMT Aug. 7) was about 50 miles (75 km) from Espiritu Santo in
the north of the island chain, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said.
Vanuatu's National Disaster Management Office issued tsunami warnings
to nearby Pentecost Island, hit by a tsunami in 2000.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii said there was no
Pacific Ocean-wide tsunami threat, even with their higher initial
reading of a 7.0 magnitude.
"However, earthquakes of this size sometimes generate local tsunamis
that can be destructive along coasts located within a 100 kilometres (60
miles) of the earthquake epicentre," the Center said in a bulletin.
Sydney, Tuesday, Reuters |