A magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck off Papua New Guinea (PNG) yesterday, sending frightened residents fleeing from their homes, but a threatened tsunami passed without incident, seismologists said.
The quake struck 133km south-southwest of the town of Kokopo in the New Britain region at a depth of 63km, the US Geological Survey said, and was followed by a magnitude 5.9 aftershock.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center initially said that “hazardous tsunami waves” were possible, but in a later update said: “The tsunami threat has now mostly passed.”
Mathew Moihoi, a seismologist at the PNG Geophysical Observatory, said the latest quake followed a series of seismic activity in the region in recent weeks, but there had been no reports of major damage to buildings or infrastructure.
“Some things fell off the shelves,” he said.
Annette Sete, who lives in Kokopo, said that there had been powerful tremors recently, “but this latest one was big.”
“Schools shut and kids sent home, many homes had the interiors turned upside down. A number of power lines down and trees fallen, but no reports of casualties yet,” she said.
Zenia Lopez, a worker at the Kokopo Village Resort, said she and her colleagues ran outside when the quake struck, but there was no damage to their resort.
“It was frightening, we all ran outside, but the place is okay, there is no damage,” she said.
A receptionist at the Seaview Beach Resort in Kokopo added before the phone line cut off that: “We felt the earth shaking,” but that “everything was okay.”
The quake hit in the remote New Britain area near Rabaul, but Moihoi said he did not think it was related to an active volcano about 110km away.
“Right now, we think it is tectonic in origin,” he said. “Whether it develops a flow-on effect ... we just don’t know right now.”
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