NewsNational

Actions

Powerful earthquake hits Papua New Guinea in South Pacific Ocean, tsunami alert issued

papau_new_guinea_quake_051419.jpg
Posted at 7:08 AM, May 14, 2019
and last updated 2019-05-14 10:08:41-04

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) - A powerful earthquake stuck Papua New Guinea on Tuesday evening, triggering a tsunami alert for the country and for the nearby Solomon Islands.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake measured magnitude 7.5 and was located 28 miles northeast of Kokopo. It was centered at a relatively shallow depth of 6 miles, it said.

Shallow earthquakes tend to cause more damage on the Earth's surface, but the USGS estimated that damage and injuries would be low because of the sparse population.

Papua New Guinea is located on the eastern half of the island of New Guinea, to the east of Indonesia.

It sits on the Pacific's "Ring of Fire," the arc of seismic faults around the Pacific Ocean where most of the world's earthquakes and volcanic activity occur.

A magnitude 7.5 earthquake in February 2018 in the nation's central region killed at least 125 people and forced another 35,000 from their homes. That quake hit areas that are remote and undeveloped, and assessments about the scale of the damage and injuries were slow to filter out.