A strong earthquake hit off the coast of the South Pacific island of Vanuatu on Monday, but Australian seismologists said it was unlikely to trigger a tsunami or cause other damage. Geoscience Australia initially said the undersea quake, centred about 200 kilometres south of Port Vila between Vanuatu and New Caledonia, had a magnitude of 6.6.
It later downgraded the tremor to a 6.3 magnitude. It would have been felt in some of the southern Vanuatu islands, duty seismologist Hugh Glanville said, but he added that the radius of the quake zone meant it was unlikely to have caused any damage on land.
"We issued a nil threat for Australia in terms of a tsunami warning. There's quite a slim chance there would be a local tsunami - but it's very unlikely," he said.
©abc
Magnitude 6.2
Date-Time
* Monday, September 08, 2008 at 03:03:16 UTC
* Monday, September 08, 2008 at 02:03:16 PM at epicenter
Location 20.028°S, 169.118°E
Depth 35 km (21.7 miles) set by location program
Region VANUATU
Distances
55 km (35 miles) SSW of Isangel, Tanna, Vanuatu
210 km (130 miles) NE of Tadine, Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia
265 km (165 miles) SSE of PORT-VILA, Efate, Vanuatu
1830 km (1140 miles) ENE of BRISBANE, Queensland, Australia