Earthquake of 7.8 strikes off Vanuatu
Triggers tsunami alert :
US: An earthquake of magnitude 7.8 occurred in the Vanuatu region on
Thursday local time, triggering an expanding regional tsunami warning
from the Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center for parts of the
Pacific located closer to the quake.
According to a report on the US Geological Survey (USGS) website, the
quake occurred at about 9:03 a.m. local time Thursday (2203 GMT
Wednesday), and the epicenter was 295 km north-northwest of Luganville,
Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu at a depth of 35 km.
The USGS originally reported that the quake had a magnitude of 8.1,
but soon revised it down to 7.8.
Just 15 minutes later a second quake with a magnitude 7.3 hit at the
same depth but 21 miles (35 kilometers) farther north of Santo and Port
Vila.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center immediately issued a regional
tsunami warning for nations and territories in this region, including
Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Nauru, Fiji, Kiribati,
Australia, Indonesia and New Zealand.
"An evaluation of the Pacific wide tsunami threat is underway and
there is a possibility that Hawaii could be elevated to a watch or
warning status," said a statement from the Pacific Tsunami Warning
Center.
A strong earthquake measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale struck the
South Pacific on September 30 with at least 165 killed by tsunami after
the earthquake. Washington, Thursday, Xinhua |