6.4 Earthquake Hits Between Vanuatu, New Caledonia
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A magnitude 6.4 undersea temblor occurred today between
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The quake occurred at 5:33 a.m. local time (18:33 Monday GMT). Its depth was estimated at 3.6 kilometers below sea level.
The epicenter was located some 85 kilometers South West of Tanna island (South Vanuatu) and 175 kilometers North-North-East off the island of Maré (part of New Caledonia's Loyalty islands group).
This temblor was followed by at least one aftershock in the same region, measuring 6.3 at 7:27 a.m.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) based in Pearl Harbor (
"No destructive widespread tsunami threat exists based on historical earthquake and tsunami data. However, earthquakes of this size sometimes generate local tsunamis that can be destructive along coasts located within a hundred kilometers of the earthquake epicenter. Authorities in the region of the epicenter should be aware of this possibility and take appropriate action," the PTWC bulletin stated.
Earlier this month, between April 8 and 10, the same region, between
In the French Pacific, the French government has recently announced it was stepping up detection and prevention systems for its three Pacific dependencies (
The implementation and installation of tsunami meters and wave height detection devices is currently under way with a particular focus on the most exposed islands in case of a tsunami generated near Tonga or Vanuatu, such as the Loyalty Islands and Wallis.
In
Over 50 persons died and thousand lost their homes as a result.
