Strong 6.6-magnitude earthquake strikes near Papua New Guinea, no tsunami threat
A powerful 6.6-magnitude earthquake struck in the Pacific today approximately 63 miles off the coast of the island nation of Papua New Guinea, according to a US Geologic Survey (USGS) report today.
The quake hit April 14 at 11:32 am at the epicenter at depth of 22 miles.
The tremor struck 63 miles west of Panguna, Papua New Guinea, 216 miles southeast of Kokopo, Papua New Guinea and 419 miles WNW of Honiara, Solomon Islands.
There is no threat of a tsunami according to a statement from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center today. “Based on all available data, a destructive Pacific-wide tsunami is not expected and there is no tsunami threat to Hawaii.”
“We are not expecting much damage. These sorts of quakes are frequent occurances in the region so people tend to be used to them and houses built to withstand them”, according to a Geoscience Australia seismologist.
According to the Richter magnitude scale, an earthquake that registers at 6.0-6.9 is considered strong. It can be destructive in areas up to about 160 kilometers (99 mi) across in populated areas. There are only approximately 130 earthquakes of this magnitude seen annually across the globe.
Papua New Guinea lies within the Pacific Ring of Fire, which causes the country to have frequent seismic and volcanic activity. Much larger numbers of earthquakes of smaller magnitude occur very regularly due to the meeting of major tectonic plates in the region.
[…] Strong 6.6-magnitude earthquake strikes near Papua New Guinea, no tsunami …The Global DispatchThe tremor struck 63 miles west of Panguna, Papua New Guinea, 216 miles southeast of Kokopo, Papua New Guinea and 419 miles WNW of Honiara, Solomon Islands. There is no threat of a tsunami according to a statement from the Pacific Tsunami …6.6-magnitude quake strikes Papua New GuineaIndian ExpressEarthquake strikes off Papua New GuineaTVNZEarthquake near Papua New GuineaCNN InternationalGMA News -Honolulu Star-Advertiserall 7 news articles » […]