Tsunami alert issued after Samoa quake

Sydney, Sep 28: A strong earthquake with a magnitude of up to 7.0 hit near the South Pacific nation of Samoa today, triggering a tsunami, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said.

''Sea level readings indicate a tsunami was generated. It may have been destructive along coasts near the earthquake epicentre,'' the Hawaii-based warning centre said on its Web site (www.prh.noaa.gov/ptwc/).

The US Geological Survey (www.usgs.gov) put the quake's magnitude at 6.7 and said it was centred in the Samoa islands group between Tonga and American Samoa. It said the quake occurred 43 km under the sea floor.

The epicentre was about 195 km southeast of Hihifo in the sparsely populated far northern reaches of Tonga and about 290 km southwest of Pago Pago in American Samoa.

''No tsunami threat exists for other coastal areas in the Pacific, although some other areas may experience small sea level changes'', the tsunami warning center said.

The situation nearer the epicentre was less certain, it said.

''As local conditions can cause a wide variation in tsunami wave action, the all-clear determination must be made by local authorities,'' it added.

That decision could only be made when no major waves were observed for two hours after the estimated time of arrival of damaging waves, it said.

Strong earthquakes are common across the far-flung islands of the vast South Pacific.

A 6.8 quake hit a remote part of Papua New Guinea on Sept.

1, while a 6.7 quake rattled Vanuatu on Aug. 8, although neither caused any significant damage or major rises in sea level.

Papua New Guinea lies along the ''Ring of Fire'', a belt of volcanoes circling the Pacific Ocean that is also prone to major earthquakes.

Reuters