Tsunami warnings issued after a magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck near the Solomon Islands in the southwestern Pacific Ocean Saturday have now been cancelled.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued tsunami warnings for the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu on Saturday.The warnings were cancelled soon after, however, with the PTWC saying that a tsunami was generated.
“Sea level readings indicate a tsunami was generated,” the center said. “It may have been destructive along coasts near the earthquake epicenter.”
The PTWC said warnings are cancelled “when no major waves are observed for two hours after the estimated time of arrival or damaging waves have not occurred for at least two hours then local authorities can assume the threat is passed.”
But it also warned that threats to boats and coastal structures can “continue for several hours due to rapid currents.”
The earthquake struck about 100 kilometres southeast of Kira Kira in the Solomon Islands at a depth of 29 kilometres, the U.S. Geological Survey wrote on its website Saturday.
An earlier tsunami warning issued for Fiji, Australia, Indonesia, New Zealand and other islands was cancelled after the same earthquake was revised down from a magnitude of 8.3 to 7.6.
The Solomon Islands are located on the “Ring of Fire”-- an area of earthquake and volcanic activity where about 90 per cent of the world’s earthquakes occur, according to the USGS.
On Friday, a magnitude 7.3 earthquake struck near Papua New Guinea at a depth of 50 kilometres.
