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Source: Reuters
The Pacific has been rocked by three large earthquakes this morning off Vanuatu, the biggest measuring 7.4 followed by two other quakes measuring 5.2 and 5.7.
It has prompted a tsunami warning for the nearby Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said.
The quake, initially reported as a magnitude 7.6, struck at 05:14 AM NZT and was centred at a depth of 36 kilometres, the US Geological Survey said.
A New Zealand Civil Defence advisory of a potential threat has been cancelled.
Civil Defence said local authorities and emergency services were alerted and people were advised to stay away from beaches. The National Crisis Management Centre at the Beehive was briefly activated.
The quake was centred 244km northwest of Santo in Vanuatu.
"An earthquake of this size has the potential to generate a destructive tsunami that can strike coastlines in the region near the epicentre within minutes to hours," the tsunami centre said, adding that it was not yet clear whether a tsunami had actually been generated.
It said the warning was in effect for the region only and that it would not expand to other areas of the Pacific based on the information known so far.
Police and fire service officials in Vanuatu said they had not felt the quake and had received no reports of a tsunami.
Eddie Stice, Vanuatu Country Director for the US Peace Corps, said by telephone that he had not felt the quake from the capitol Port Vila, which is on an island a few hundred miles south of the quake epicentre.
The area closest to any tsunami was only very lightly populated, he added. "We have no reports of a tsunami, no reports of any damage," he said, but Peace Corps volunteers were calling to identify anyone in the area.
"We didn't feel anything in Honiara," said US Consular Agent Keithie Saunders by telephone from Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. Her office is several hundred kilometres northwest of Vanuatu.
Are you in Vanuatu? Do you have any pictures of the earthquake? Send them to ONE News at news@tvnz.co.nz
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