A strong, shallow earthquake struck off the coast of Tonga just after 2 o’clock this afternoon.
Friday 2nd October 2009
A 10 km-deep magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck 85 km south-east of Hihifo, Tonga at 2:08 p.m. today. The epicentre was 240 km north-north-east of Neiafu, Tonga, and 545 km north-north-east of the Tongan capital Nuku’Alofa. Today’s event is located some 200 km south of Wednesday’s magnitude 8 earthquake.
This is the strongest quake to strike the area since Wednesday’s great quake. A magnitude 5.1 aftershock of the great quake followed the event near Tonga at 2:55 p.m. New Zealand Daylight Time.
Earthquake activity in the Tonga-Samoa area has been steady since the great quake and tsunami of September 30th. The U.S. Geological Survey has reported 65 distinct aftershocks, including the magnitude 6 event today, 41 of 5th magnitude and 23 of 4th magnitude.
[Compiled from data supplied by the U.S. Geological Survey and its contributing agencies.]