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7.1-magnitude quake strikes Papua New Guinea

Quake

A relatively strong quake has hit the northeast of the Papua New Guinea’s capital of Port Moresby.

The epicenter of the quake, which occurred at 0806 GMT on Friday, was registered 110 kilometers (72 miles) southwest of the town of Kokopo, in the New Britain region, with a depth of 53 kilometers.

In the early hours after the quake, officials in the Pacific nation warned people of a potential tsunami, but the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued no such alert.

There has been no immediate report of casualties or damage to the properties.

An image captured from the US Geological Survey (USGS) website shows the geographical location of a 7.1-magnitude earthquake in eastern Papua New Guinea, May 1, 2015.

The tremor was the second hitting the region in two days with the first one measuring 6.7 on the Richter scale on Thursday.

Experts say the earthquake originated from the same sort of fault movement which caused the deadly earthquake in Nepal earlier in the week, leaving more than 6,000 people dead in the Himalayan country.

“In this case, it is an ocean plate - the Solomon Sea is being pushed underneath New Britain (Island) - and it is a very active seismic zone … it's produced much larger earthquakes than this one we've had,” Roger Musson of the British Geological Survey told Sky News.

 A magnitude-7.5 quake hit the same region in late March, causing the residents to flee their homes although it triggered no tsunami.

 MS/NN/HMV


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