54 mins ago
PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea (AFP) – An undersea earthquake with a magnitude of 6.7 struck off the remote New Ireland area of Papua New Guinea on Wednesday, triggering a local tsunami warning, US scientists said.
The epicentre of the quake, which struck at 12:19 am (1419 GMT Tuesday), was located 95 kilometres (60 miles) south-southeast of the town of Taron, New Ireland, the US Geological Survey said. It took place at a depth of 35 kilometres.
A "destructive Pacific-wide tsunami" was not expected but "earthquakes of this size sometimes generate local tsunamis that can be destructive along coasts located within a hundred kilometres of the earthquake epicentre", the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said in a bulletin.
Authorities in the region of the epicentre should take appropriate action, it added.
Papua New Guinea sits on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire", where continental plates meet. The region is frequently rocked by earthquakes.
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