Undersea Quakes Trigger Panic In South Pacific

Victor Sardina fields phone calls at the Richard H. Hagemeyer Pacific Tsunami Warning Center located in Ewa Beach on the island of Oahu, 07 Oct 2009Strong undersea earthquakes caused panic in the South Pacific Thursday,sending islanders scrambling to higher ground a little more than a weekafter a tsunami killed at least 150 people in the region.

The quakes only generated small waves, and there were no immediate reports of damage.

TheU.S. Geological Survey says the first quake measured 7.8 in magnitude.It hit about 300 kilometers northwest of Vanuatu and was followed by atleast two other strong tremors.

The quakes triggered a tsunamiwarning for coastlines as far as Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia.The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center canceled the alert after recordingthree small tsunamis, up to 10 centimeters in height, in Vanuatu.

Scientists say the recent spike in activity is not unusual and just a part of normal cycle of earthquake activity.

Thelatest quakes happened nearly two weeks after a powerful earthquakegenerated deadly tsunamis that wiped out villages and tourist retreatson the islands of Samoa, American Samoa and nearby Tonga.  

Inthe Philippines, a magnitude 6.7 earthquake was recorded Thursday,nearly 300 kilometers southeast of Jolo on the Sulu archipelago. Therewere no immediate reports of injuries.


Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.