Tsunami alert in the Pacific after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake

A magnitude 7.

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
22 May 2023 Monday 13:28
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Tsunami alert in the Pacific after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake

A magnitude 7.7 earthquake that shook the southeast of the Loyalty Islands, an archipelago in the French territory of New Caledonia in the South Pacific, on Friday triggered a tsunami alert within a radius of 1,000 kilometers around the epicenter.

The Pacific Tsunami Alert Service indicated that according to available data "dangerous waves are possible on the coasts within a radius of 1,000 kilometers" from the epicenter.

The waves could be between 1 and 3 meters high at their impact against the Vanuatu coast; and between 0.3 and 1 meter in Fiji, Kiribati and New Zealand, the service notes.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS), which monitors global seismic activity, located the earthquake 37 kilometers deep under the seabed and 333 kilometers southeast of the town of Vao, on the Isle of Pines -the southernmost of New Caledonia - and 433 kilometers southeast of Isangel, on the island of Tanna in Vanuatu.

For its part, the Australian Meteorological Service indicated that the tsunami could threaten Lord Howe Island, more than 450 kilometers east of the eastern town of Port Macquarie, in the State of New South Wales.

While the New Zealand National Emergency Management Agency indicated on social networks that it "evaluates" the potential threat.

New Caledonia is located near the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire and the submarine volcanoes of the Lau Basin, which is why it regularly registers shocks of seismic origin.