A powerful earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.6 rocked the waters near Tonga in the South Pacific Ocean on Tuesday, triggering localized coastal evacuations, though no widespread tsunami alerts were issued.
The United States Geological Survey reported that the tremor occurred early Tuesday evening local time, originating at a depth of approximately 237 kilometers (148 miles). Earthquakes that occur at shallower depths tend to be more intensely felt at the surface.
The epicenter of the quake was located in the ocean, about 153 kilometers (95 miles) west of Neiafu, Tonga’s second-largest town.
As of now, no damage has been reported.
The National Disaster Risk Management Office in Tonga advised residents of the low-lying regions to promptly move to higher ground or head inland as a precautionary measure.
A message posted on the office’s Facebook page urged people to steer clear of beaches, shorelines, and low-lying coastal areas until authorities declared it safe to return.
The USGS did not issue a tsunami warning for the region, and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii said in a bulletin that there was no tsunami threat because the quake was “located too deep inside the earth.”
Tonga is an archipelago in Polynesia made up of 171 islands with just over 100,000 people, most of whom live on the main island of Tongatapu. Tuesday’s quake was centered nearer to the Vava’u island group.
A person who answered the phone at the Tanoa International Dateline Hotel on the beachfront at Nuku’alofa, which is on Tongatapu, said she wasn’t aware of any damage.
“The whole building shaked. No further damage. Everything was ok,” she said.
Tonga is situated on the Pacific Ring of Fire, the arc of seismic faults where much of the world’s earthquake and volcanic activity occurs. A tsunami set off by a volcanic eruption in 2022 killed three people.
The island nation is about 1,800 kilometers (1,100 miles) northeast of New Zealand, where disaster management officials said Tuesday that there was no tsunami threat to the country.
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Associated Press writer Rod McGuirk contributed from Melbourne, Australia.
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