VANUATU, NEW CALEDONIA RECORD 6.4 QUAKE

PACIFIC ISLANDS REPORT

Pacific Islands Development Program/East-West Center
With Support From Center for Pacific Islands Studies/University of Hawai‘i

VANUATU, NEW CALEDONIA RECORD 6.4 QUAKE
No damage reported from undersea tremblor

By Patrick Antoine Decloitre

SUVA, Fiji (Oceania Flash, April 29, 2008) – A magnitude 6.4 undersea temblor has occurred on Tuesday between Vanuatu and New Caledonia, the U.S. Geological Survey, based in Denver (Colorado) said.

The quake occurred at 5:33 a.m. local time (18:33 Monday GMT).

Its depth was estimated at 3.6 kilometres below sea level.

The epicentre was located some 85 kilometres South West of Tanna island (South Vanuatu) and 175 kilometres North-North-East off the island of Maré (part of New Caledonia's Loyalty islands group).

This temblor was followed by at least one aftershock in the same region, measuring 6.3 at 7:27 a.m.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre (PTWC) based in Pearl Harbour (Hawaii) has issued one single message at 18:47 GMT Monday for information only, but no alert.

"No destructive widespread tsunami threat exists based on historical earthquake and tsunami data. However, earthquakes of this size sometimes generate local tsunamis that can be destructive along coasts located within a hundred kilometres of the earthquake epicentre. Authorities in the region of the epicentre should be aware of this possibility and take appropriate action", the PTWC bulletin stated.

Earlier this month, between April 8 and 10, the same region, between Vanuatu and neighbouring New Caledonia, was also the scene of an intense seismic activity at an average depth of 35 kilometres.

This included one quake peaking 7.3 on the Richter scale.

In the French Pacific, the French government has recently announced it was stepping up detection and prevention systems for its three Pacific dependencies (New Caledonia, French Polynesia, Wallis and Futuna).

The implementation and installation of tsunanimetres and wave height measurers is currently under way with a particular focus on the most exposed islands in case of a tsunami generated near Tonga or Vanuatu, such as the Loyalty Islands and Wallis.

In New Caledonia's Melanesian region, authorities in the Solomon Islands have on April 2 commemorated the first anniversary of the April 2, 2007 disaster: a magnitude 8 earthquake that triggered a subsequent tsunami in the North of the archipelago, in the province of Gizo.

Over 50 persons died and thousand lost their homes as a result.

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