A pair of 6th magnitude earthquakes has struck near Vanuatu and a pair of 5th magnitude events near Tonga in recent days.
Two shallow 6th magnitude earthquakes struck near Vanuatu just after midnight on the morning of Thursday 13th March 2008, New Zealand Daylight Time. The first quake struck at 24 minutes after midnight 120 km south of Luganville, Espiritu Santo (165 km north-west of the capital Port Vila) at a depth of 10 km.
Thirteen minutes later a magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck 105 km south of Luganville (185 km north-west of Port Vila) at a depth of 10 km. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre assessed the earlier event as magnitude 6.5 and slightly deeper at 33 km, but considered that a widespread tsunami threat did not exist following the submarine quake.
Earlier in the week, a shallow magnitude 5.3 quake struck 115 km south of Luganville, and a very deep magnitude 4.4 quake well to the north-east of the island.
Overnight, a pair of 5th magnitude quakes has struck 13 minutes apart near Tonga. A magnitude 5.1 quake struck 135 km south-south-east of Nuku’Alofa at 4:49 a.m. New Zealand time. At 5:02 a.m. a magnitude 5.4 quake struck 115 km south of the Tongan capital. Both quakes were shallow at depths of about 35 km.
[Compiled from data supplied by the U.S. Geological Survey and its contributing agencies; and the U.S. National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration’s Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre.]