James Bickerton – February 10, 2021
A SERIES of powerful earthquakes struck off Indonesia and New Caledonia – sparking tsunami fears.
An earthquake of magnitude 7.7 struck southeast of Loyalty Islands on Wednesday, the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) said. The quake’s epicentre was 401 km east of Tadine, New Caledonia, and was at a depth of 2 km, EMSC said. Ten earthquakes and aftershocks hit the region in a short space of time – ranging between a magnitude of 5.0-6.2 – with the first quake at 12.24.21 (UTC) and the final at 14.59.37 (UTC).
In response, a tsunami warning was issued with waves of between 0.3 and one-meter feared for Fiji, Vanuatu and New Zealand.
A lesser warning for a tsunami of up to 0.3 meters was issued for Australia, Papua New Guinea and American Samoa.
Separately an earthquake of magnitude 6.2 struck southwest of Sumatra, Indonesia, on Wednesday, the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) said.
The quake was at a depth of 30 km (18.64 miles), EMSC said.
It struck around 217 kilometres to the south-west of Bengkulu, a city of 328,000 people, at 19:52 local time (12:52 GMT).