Earthquake activity in the islands of the South Pacific has increased during the past week, with eight moderate or strong events near Tonga, Fiji and Vanuatu.
Two shallow earthquakes with magnitudes of 5.1 and 4.9 struck near Tonga on January 14th.
A very deep magnitude 6.5 quake followed in the Fiji Islands on the 16th, New Zealand time. Two days later another very deep quake of magnitude 4.3 was recorded to the south of Fiji. Three more quakes with magnitudes of 4.6, 5.1 and 5.1 struck in the Fiji islands area on the 18th, 19th and early this morning.
The latest event was a magnitude 5.2 quake, 118 km deep located near Vanuatu at 8:34 NZ Daylight Time this morning, Sunday 20th January 2008.
[Compiled from data supplied by the U.S. Geological Survey and its contributing agencies.]