A magnitude 6 earthquake struck Monday in the Bismarck Sea, east of Papua New Guinea, authorities said, reporting no casualties or material damage.
The earthquake occurred at 11:05 a.m. (2:05 a.m. in Lisbon) at sea, with the hypocenter located ten kilometers deep, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), which records seismic activity around the world.
The closest city to the site is Kavieng, capital of the province of New Ireland, 224 kilometers from the epicenter.
The island of New Guinea, of which the western half is part of Indonesia and the eastern part of Papua New Guinea, is located on the so-called “Ring of Fire” in the Pacific, an area of great seismic and volcanic activity. which annually registers about seven thousand earthquakes, mostly moderate.
In 1998, a magnitude 7 earthquake was recorded in the Bismarck Sea, triggering a tsunami that destroyed dozens of towns and caused more than 2,200 deaths.
Source: TSF
