7.6-magnitude earthquake hits East Papua New Guinea, Tsunami warning issued

Port Moresby, Sep 11: The US Geological Survey has detected a 7.6-magnitude earthquake in northeastern Papua New Guinea. The quake hit at 6:46 am.

Initial readings put the quake at a depth of some 50 to 60 kilometers (30 to 40 miles) located 67 kilometers (42 miles) east of Kainantu, a sparsely populated area.

The US Geological Survey, which reported the quake, issued a tsunami warning but subsequently said the threat "has now passed".

The extent of damage is not yet clear, but the USGS estimates "some casualties and damage are possible and the impact should be relatively localized." Papua New Guinea is located on the eastern half of the island of New Guinea, to the east of Indonesia and north of eastern Australia.

It sits on the Pacific's "Ring of Fire," the arc of seismic faults around the Pacific Ocean where much of the world's earthquakes and volcanic activity occurs.

A magnitude 7.5 earthquake in 2018 in the nation's central region killed at least 125 people. That quake hit areas that are remote and undeveloped, and assessments about the scale of the damage and injuries were slow to filter out.