Monday, October 12, 2009

AFP | A 6.4-magnitude quake hits South Pacific

SYDNEY — A 6.4-magnitude quake hit the Santa Cruz islands in the South Pacific on Monday, US seismologists said, but there was no immediate warning of a tsunami.

The quake struck at a shallow depth of 10 kilometres (six miles) about 355 kilometres north of Luganville, part of the Vanuatu archipelago, at 8:37 pm (0937 GMT), the US Geological Survey said.

But no tsunami warning was immediately issued as a result of the tremor, which followed a series of huge quakes last week that triggered a region-wide tsunami alert.

The Pacific is still recovering from an 8.0 magnitude earthquake and huge tsunami that crashed into Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga on September 29, wiping out villages and resorts and killing 184.