Magnitude Earthquake Strikes in South Pacific : Tsunami warnings for New Caledonia

New Caledonia and the nearby islands are in Tsunami threat after a 7.5 magnitude earthquake shook the South Pacific on Wednesday.
The earthquake was 10km deep, about 155 km east of the nearest populated city, Tadine, on New Caledonia’s east coast but there was no threat to Hawaii, said the researchers of the US National Tsunami Center.
Earthquakes are generally more destructive when the epicentre is near the surface. The earthquake’s epicentre was about 310 kilometres away from New Caledonia’s capital, Noumea.
“Hazardous tsunami waves from this earthquake are possible within 1,000 km of the epicenter along the coasts of Vanuatu and New Caledonia,” the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said in statement.
The South Pacific territory people are asked to vacant the place keeping distance more than 300 meters or if possible, to sites higher than 12 meters above sea level or go to refuge centres immediately.
“We have set off the alarm on the exterior of New Caledonia but we don’t have any immediate assessment of potential damage,” said a spokeswoman.
“We activated the alert sirens… along the east coast and all the Loyalty Islands,” said Eric Backes to the radio.
“People should move away from the coastline and to higher ground or go to the evacuation points set up in each commune,” saiying this Erich also added “I was in a meeting at the town hall and we felt a small tremor then a bigger one.”
But according to Vanuatu’s government, it was not expecting a “destructive tsunami”.
New Caledonia is on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, the bend of seismic blames around the Pacific Ocean where the vast majority of the world’s tremors and volcanic movement happen. New Caledonia.
> Puza Sarker Snigdha