The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has withdrawn its tsunami warning for the Pacific after a 7.6-magnitude earthquake hit Papua New Guinea.
However, NOAA warned that there may be “slight fluctuations in sea level along some coastal areas.”
Residents told Agence France-Presse that the earthquake damaged buildings near the city of Madang and in the interior of Papua New Guinea.
Residents of Madang told the news agency they felt “very strong tremors” and damaged buildings.
According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the epicenter of the earthquake was 67 kilometers from the city of Kainantu in eastern Papua New Guinea.
The quake struck at 06:46 (21:45 Saturday in Lisbon) at a depth of 61 km, the USGS added.
The extent of the damage is still unclear, but the USGS predicts “some deaths and injuries are possible, and the impact should be relatively localized.”
On Saturday, an earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale hit the Indonesian province of Papua today, followed a few minutes later by another earthquake measuring 5.8.
Split between Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, the island of Papua lies on the Pacific Ring of Fire, where the meeting of tectonic plates causes high seismic activity.
On May 27, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Service issued a tsunami warning — which was withdrawn a few hours later — for countries bordering the Indian Ocean due to a 6.1-magnitude earthquake off the coast of East Timor.
In February, a 6.2-magnitude earthquake struck the northern island of Sumatra, killing eight people.
In January 2021, a magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck the island of Sulawesi, killing more than 100 people and destroying thousands of homes in the coastal city of Mamuju.
In 2004, a magnitude 9.1 earthquake triggered a tsunami off the coast of Sumatra that killed 220,000 people across the region, including 170,000 in Indonesia.
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