Wild Land

A swarm of moderately strong shallow earthquakes has struck near the Indonesian border of Papua New Guinea since late last night.

The swarm of five earthquakes struck over a five hour period, beginning with a magnitude 5.9 earthquake at 10:50 p.m. on Sunday the 22nd of July 2007 NZST. It was followed by a magnitude 5.0 quake at quarter-past midnight and a magnitude 4.8 event 26 minutes later. A magnitude 5.9 quake struck at 2:21 this morning and a magnitude 5.5 event at 3:42 a.m.

All of the quakes have been located between 35 and 60 km east-south-east of Vanimo, New Guinea, at depths of 35 km. Activity appears to have since eased.

A magnitude 5.4 earthquake struck further east in the Bismarck Sea at 9 minutes after midday today. This quake was very deep, at 574 km.

Last week’s series of earthquakes in the Kermadecs seems to have run its course, ending with a magnitude 5.7 quake located 345 km north of Raoul Island on Thursday July 19th at 1152 a.m. In all, four earthquakes with magnitudes between 5.7 and 6.1 were reported during the burst of activity.

Other activity in the western South Pacific has been recorded in New Caledonia. A magnitude 5.5 quake struck 95 km north-east of Tadine in the Loyalty Islands early on Saturday morning, New Zealand time.

[Compiled from data supplied by the US Geological Survey and its contributing agencies.]

This entry was posted on Monday, July 23rd, 2007 at 3:31 pm and is filed under Earthquakes - Observations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.