Powerful quake hits off Papua New Guinea
A magnitude 7.9 earthquake has struck off Papua New Guinea (PNG), causing damage and blackouts but no tsunami hours after the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued an alert for nearby islands.
The tsunami warning initially spanned several Pacific islands, though that was subsequently wound back to cover just PNG and neighbouring Solomon Islands. There was no threat for New Zealand.
Initial reports from USGS said the quake was magnitude 8. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre (PTWC) had reported it as magnitude 8.4, but later downgraded the magnitude to 7.9.
READ MORE:
* Assessing a tsunami threat to NZ - any hour, any day of the week
* Civil Defence overhaul 'inevitable' after tsunami warning confusion: Government
The mid-afternoon quake (5.30pm NZ time) struck at a depth of 167 kilometres beneath the eastern province of Bougainville. The epicentre was where Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands meet in a continuous South Pacific archipelago, said Chris McKee, assistant director of Papua New Guinea Geophysical Observatory in Port Moresby.
There is no tsunami threat to New Zealand following the 7.9M Solomon Islands earthquake at 1730 NZ time.
— MCDEM (@NZcivildefence) January 22, 2017
No casualties were reported. But there was damage in parts of central Bougainville and the major town of Arawa, Aloysius Laukai, manager of New Dawn FM Bougainville radio station, said in an email.
The provincial capital of Buka was blacked out and residents of the southern town of Buin were moved to higher ground as a precaution against a potential tsunami, Laukai said. All tsunami warnings were later lifted.
The greatest tsunami threat had been to Bougainville and that threat had passed without any report of a tsunami, McKee said.
"I suspect that because of the great depth of the earthquake, there was probably no significant tsunami," McKee said.
Solomons government official George Herming said he was not aware of any major tremors being felt in his country or any tsunami.
Jennifer El-Sibai, Save the Children's Country director in Papua New Guinea, said that national and provincial disaster authorities were monitoring the tsunami situation and Save the Children staff were ready to respond if required.
Phillip Rowe, a New Zealander living in the Solomon Island capital of Honiara, said he didn't feel any shaking, and said there had not been any tsunami threat issued by authorities there.
Quakes are common in Papua New Guinea, which sits on the Pacific's "Ring of Fire", a hotspot for seismic activity due to friction between tectonic plates.
- Stuff, Reuters, AP
