SYDNEY: The US Geological Survey on Tuesday said that an earthquake measuring 6.5 on Richter Scale struck the northern coast of Papua New Guinea.
It said that the quake hit about 20 kilometres off the coast, near to the town of Wekak, capital of East Sepik province of the country.
The epicenter of the quake was at the depth of 12 kilometres at 8:46 am local time (2146 GMT Monday), the USGS said.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in a separate bulletin has said that there is no tsunami threat because of the earthquake.
Earthquakes are quite common to Papua New Guinea, which is located on the seismic Ring of Fire an arc of intense tectonic activity that spread from Southeast Asia to the Pacific basin.
Though such quakes do not cause any widespread damage in the less populated jungle but they can trigger massive landslides.
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In April this year at least seven people were killed when a 7.0-magnitude quake struck an area in the country’s interior.
About 180 homes were destroyed in the earthquake in Karawari area, near the quake’s epicenter.
In September last year, 10 people were killed when a 7.6-magnitude earthquake hit the Pacific-Island states. The quake levelled hundreds of homes, split roads and caused power outages in north of the country.
That was the largest quake to strike Papua New Guinea since 2018, when almost 150 people were killed.
