Strong Quake Strikes Papua New Guinea, No Damage
Date: 30-Sep-05
Country: AUSTRALIA
"The earthquake did not cause any tsunamis and we do not yet have any reports of damage or injury, but a series of aftershocks were quite strong," a spokesman for Papua New Guinea's National Disaster and Emergency Services said.
The second large quake in the area this month hit at about 1:50 a.m. local time (1550 GMT Thursday) and was measured by Geoscience Australia as a 6.1 magnitude tremor.
The US Geological Survey put the magnitude at 6.5 but said it could be revised later.
The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said no tsunami warning had been issued after the quake which it said measured 6.8 in magnitude.
"No destructive Pacific-wide tsunami threat exists based on historical earthquake and tsunami data," it said.
The quake struck about 150 km (90 miles) southwest of Rabaul on the southern coastline of Papua New Guinea's New Britain island. The area has a population of about 20,000, said a spokesman for the Geophysical Observatory in the capital Port Moresby.
A major earthquake measuring 7.3 in magnitude, centred about 130 km (80 miles) east of Rabaul, shook eastern Papua New Guinea on Sept. 9.
Seismically active, Papua New Guinea also lies on "the Ring of Fire", a zone of volcanic activity which accounts for 75 percent of the world's active and dormant volcanoes.
Rabaul was destroyed in the September 1994 eruption of Tuvurvur volcano.
In July 1998, two undersea quakes measuring 7.0 created three tsunamis that killed at least 2,100 people near the town of Aitape on Papua New Guinea's north coast.
