fuyumi

SYDNEY - AN earthquake measuring 6.1 struck in the Bismarck Sea off the northern coast of Papua New Guinea on Thursday, but residents on the mainland said there were initial no signs a change in sea level.

The quake, which was 10km deep, was centred 675km north of Papua New Guinea's capital, Port Moresby, said the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said on its website.

Residents in the towns of Madang and Wewak on Papua New Guinea's north coast said they had not felt the quake - which hit at 10.40am (8.40am Singapore time) - and that there had been no change in sea levels.

'We have not felt anything and we have not seen any change in the sea,' the receptionist at the Windjammer Beach Hotel in Wewak said.

In July 1998, two undersea quakes measuring 7.0 in the Bismarck Sea created three tsunamis that killed at least 2,100 people near the town of Aitape on Papua New Guinea's north coast.

In April, an undersea earthquake off neighbouring Solomon Islands created a tsunami which destroyed villages, killing 28 people, and leaving thousands of people homeless.

Papua New Guinea and the neighbouring Solomon Islands lie on the so-called Pacific 'Ring of Fire' where volcanic activity and earthquakes are common.

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

wcong

hopefully no tsunami this time... heard it killed alot of people during the last few years..

seacsub

More and more natural disasters surfacing lately. Hope none of it reaches here any time soon. @_@"

astrea

nah... singapore is quite safe cos we are surrounded by islands... tsunamis will hit those islands first before getting to spore... chances are by the time they reach (if they ever do), they would have lost all of their powers

wcong

but we have waterspouts, which appears during May to Sept. every year.