A major earthquake struck Vanuatu this morning, New Zealand time. The quake was located north of yesterday’s magnitude 6.2 quake, closer to the epicentre of Saturday morning’s event.
The U.S. Geological Survey reports that the magnitude 7.0 earthquake, which struck at 6:52 a.m. New Zealand time on Tuesday the 9th of September 2008, was located 225 km north of Luganville, Espiritu Santo (490 km north-north-west of the Vanuatu capital Port Vila) at a depth of 122 km.
Geoscience Australia record the earthquake as magnitude 6.9 at a depth of 115 km. They estimate the quake would have caused damage within 90 km of the epicentre and would have been felt up to 1100 km away. This means that damage might be expected in the Torres Islands and Banks Islands.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre issued two bulletins for the event. The first, issued at 7:05 a.m. New Zealand time reported the quake at magnitude 6.8 at a depth of 146 km but this had been revised to magnitude 7.1 at a depth of 146 km by the time the second bulletin was issued at 7:35 a.m. Both bulletins state that historical tsunami data indicates that a destructive tsunami was not generated by the quake.
A magnitude 5.6 foreshock appears to have struck the area just after midnight New Zealand time on Saturday September 6th. This quake was located 256 km north of Luganville at a depth of 178 km. Two quakes of magnitude 5 located in the Santa Cruz Islands about 200 km north of today’s quake struck three minutes apart on the evening of September the 4th.
[Compiled from data supplied by the U.S. Geological Survey and its contributing agencies; the U.S. National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration’s Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre, and Geoscience Australia.]
heard of the terrible quake in new zealand, hope you are all prepared in case of tsuname, prayers are with you.