Strong earthquake rattles PNG island
Baku, March 10 (AZERTAC). Papua New Guinea`s earthquake-prone New Britain Island has been rattled by a 6.5 magnitude quake but there are no reports of damage.
The inland earthquake, just 24km from the city of Kandrian, hit at 8:24am today, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology said.
Geoscience Australia duty seismologist Steven Tatham said the earthquake was at 6.5 magnitude and 65km deep.
"It was 65 kilometres deep, that`s good from the point of view of keeping damage to a minimum," Tatham said.
"If it was very shallow it would be another story.
"People in that area, in the tens to hundreds of kilometres, would have felt it but damage is something that`s hard to predict."
Tatham said earthquake activity was common on the island.
"In the last 40 years there`s been 200 quakes across New Britain and in the last 10 years there`s been 45 earthquakes of a significant size, of a magnitude five or greater in that.
"Earthquake activity is quite common in the area and an event of this size perhaps we might talk about several a year occurring.
"We can definitely say that it won`t be the last earthquake in the area."
Kandrian is one of the biggest centres on New Britain Island, with a population of about 1000 people.
There is no tsunami threat to Australian territories and minimum threat to the New Britain coastline, authorities say.
In July 2010, New Britain had an earthquake of 7.3 magnitude, which produced a small tsunami.
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