7.5 magnitude quake strikes off New Caledonia

Noumea (New Caledonia): A powerful 7.5-magnitude earthquake shook off the coast of the Pacific island of New Caledonia on Wednesday, triggering a tsunami warning that was later lifted. No significant damage was reported. New Caledonia is a French territory in South Pacific with a population of about 270,000. It is a part of the Pacific’s “Ring of Fire”, where many earthquakes occur.

The earthquake struck at a depth of 10 km, with its epicenter 168 km east-south-east of Tadine, a town on one of New Caledonia’s Loyalty Islands, the BBC reported. The service, which had initially warned of the possibility of large tsunami waves of up to three metres hitting the coasts of New Caledonia, Vanuatu and Fiji, said that some areas might register sea-level fluctuations of up to 30 centimetre in the next few hours, according to Efe news. (IANS)

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