Quake hits off Papua New Guinea coast; no injuries

MELBOURNE

A major earthquake struck off the south of Papua New Guinea on Tuesday, but despite a small tsunami near the epicenter there were no reports of widespread damage or injury.

The U.S. Geological Service announced a magnitude-7.4 earthquake hit around 150 kilometers (more than 93 miles) south of Papua New Guinea.

According to ABC News, East New Britain province’s capital Kokopo suffered an electric outage and a landslide reportedly occurred in Vunabakut.

The tremor was recorded as magnitude-7.2 by the PNG Geophysical Observatory Office, whose data showed it had led to a small tsunami.

The Office’s Chris Maki was quoted by ABC as saying waves whose size was within the normal tidal range were seen in Rabaul harbor.

"The sea receded first and then came back in, and they saw several cycles of tsunami action," he said.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said that an initial tsunami warning for "hazardous" waves for islands within 300 km of the epicenter had “largely passed."

Daniel Jaksa, Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Centre co-director, said that any tsunami would be “quite small."

"This is not unexpected, we can assume that these sorts of earthquakes in this region will continue to occur in the future," ABC reported him as saying.

He explained that since the affected region of Papua New Guinea is not populous, it would be unlikely for tremors to result in serious damage.

In late March, a magnitude-7.5 undersea tremor struck off the coast of Papua New Guinea, reportedly causing no damage or injury.

Earthquakes are common in PNG as it sits on the “Pacific Ring of Fire” -- a hotspot for seismic activity due to friction between tectonic plates.