A magnitude 6.3 earthquake hit the waters east of the island of Papua New Guinea this Tuesday, with no serious property damage or casualties reported and no tsunami warning issued by authorities.
The earthquake was recorded at 11:49 am (00:49 am in Lisbon) andoi is 221 kilometers deep, according to preliminary data released by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) – which records seismic activity around the world.
Notable earthquake, preliminary info: M 6.3 – 118 km ESE of Madang, Papua New Guinea https://t.co/uvZNAW4lDc
— USGS Earthquakes (@USGS_Quakes) March 14, 2023
The USGS indicated that the quake’s epicenter was 119 kilometers from the town of Madang, on Papua New Guinea’s northern coast, and about 144 kilometers from Lae, the country’s second most populous city.
In 1998, an earthquake measuring 7 on the Richter scale struck the Bismarck Sea, northeast of the island, triggering a tsunami that flattened dozens of villages and killed more than 2,200 people.
Papua New Guinea regularly experiences earthquakes and volcanic eruptions as it is located in the so-called “ring of fire” of the Pacific Ocean, an area of great seismic and volcanic activity, where thousands of earthquakes are recorded each year, the mostly of low to moderate magnitude.
Source: DN
