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Quake sparks tsunami alert
09/02/2005 08:00 - (SA)
Port Moresby - Thousands of people living in coastal settlements in the Papuan New Guinea capital Port Moresby fled their homes on Wednesday after an earthquake under the South Pacific sparked a tsunami alert.
The earthquake measuring 6.7 on the Richter scale struck at 12:47, centred under the Coral Sea near Vanuatu, about 2 000km southeast of Port Moresby.
The Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii issued an alert following the quake, but Geoscience Australia duty seismologist Cvetan Sinadinovski said no tsunami was recorded on the tidal gauges in the region.
Rumours of the tsunami alert still spread through coastal communities in the PNG capital, sending residents scurrying for higher ground, local residents said.
Most had returned to their homes by 09:00 as officials provided assurances there was no danger of a tsunami occurring.
Hit by tsunamis in the past
Nearly 295 000 people were killed by tsunamis following a massive earthquake on December 26 near the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
The PNG mainland has also been hit by tsunamis in the past, with more than 2 000 people killed in 1998 when tidal waves struck the north coast town of Aitape following a 7.0 magnitude earthquake off the country's east coast.
Wednesday's earthquake was preceded by a smaller, 6.1 magnitude quake on Tuesday off the PNG island of New Britain.
Both earthquakes were centred far below the surface of the earth and neither caused any damage, Sinadinovski said in Sydney.
Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu lie in the same tectonic collision zone as Sumatra, but Sinadinovski said this week's earthquakes were not connected to the December 26 temblor.
- AFP
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