A burst of earthquake activity has followed the strong earthquake which struck near the Loyalty Islands northeast of Noumea, New Caledonia just before 8 o’clock this morning.
The sequence of six shallow earthquakes commenced with a magnitude 6.3 earthquake at a depth of 7 km at 7:58 a.m. on Friday 28th September 2007, New Zealand time. The quake was located 155 km east of Tadine in the Loyalty Islands, 320 km east-north-east of Noumea, New Caledonia.
A magnitude 5.0 quake located 170 km east of Tadine at a depth of 10 km followed at 9:02 a.m. A magnitude 5.5 event occurred 3 minutes later, 155 km east-north-east of Tadine at a depth of 15 km. At 9:27 a.m. a magnitude 5.3 event struck 140 km east-north-east of Tadine at a depth of 10 km.
Another burst of activity occurred just after 10 o’clock this morning. A magnitude 5.4 quake struck 155 km east of Tadine at a depth of 10 km at 10:01, and a magnitude 4.9 event 9 minutes later was located 145 km east-north-east of Tadine at a depth of 10 km.
The most recent events are subject to re-assessment by seismologists at USGS.
[Compiled from data supplied by the US Geological Survey and its contributing agencies.]