A 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck Friday in the Pacific Ocean southeast of New Caledonia, triggering a tsunami warning, US monitoring agencies said.
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According to AFP, The US Geological Survey said the earthquake’s epicenter was near the Loyalty Islands, southwest of Fiji, north of New Zealand and east of Australia. It was 37 kilometers (23 miles) deep in an area which is part of the “Ring of Fire”- an arc of seismic faults around the Pacific Ocean. Most of the world’s earthquakes occur in the region.
A hotel receptionist in the New Caledonia capital Noumea told AFP she felt no shaking from the tremor. A travel agent on the island of Ile des Pins on the eastern edge of the New Caledonia archipelago said she had not felt the tremor or heard any evacuation warning.
Meanwhile, the earthquake created small tsunami waves in Vanuatu, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said as waves less than 1.5 feet were measured off Lenakel- a port town in the island nation. Smaller waves were measured elsewhere, it added.
Vanuatu’s National Disaster Management Office advised people to evacuate from coastal areas to higher grounds saying that people should listen to their radios for updates and take other precautionary measures. New Zealand’s National Emergency Management Agency also said that it expected coastal areas would experience strong and unusual currents.
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