A great quake of 8th magnitude struck the Fiji region just after midday today.
Sunday, 19th August 2018
A magnitude 8.2 earthquake struck 280 km north-north-east of Ndoi Island, Fiji at 12:20 this afternoon. The deep quake was centred 273 km east of Levuka, Fiji, 365 km east of Suva, Fiji, 448 km north-west of Nuku’Alofa, Tonga at a depth of 563 km according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
[click for larger image] The earthquake left a strong trace on New Zealand’s seismograph network.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre (PTWC) issued two bulletins for the event. Initially it was thought that the earthquake was magnitude 7.9 and too deep to have generated a tsunami. In a bulletin issued at 12:49 the PTWC revised the quake to magnitude 8.2 at a depth of 570 km and noted that small tsunami waves had been observed and that “persons along coastal areas near the earthquake should be observant and exercise normal caution. Otherwise no action is required.”