SYDNEY: Frightened villagers fled to higher ground fearing a tsunami when a 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit Sunday evening just off the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu.
The epicenter of the strong quake was in the sea just off the northern bay of the largest island of Espiritu Santo, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of the archipelago’s capital. Port Vila.
Kayson Pore, a 22-year-old student from Hog Harbor village in Espiritu Santo, said he was looking for crab on the beach with half a dozen friends when the earth shook.
“It was very huge,” Pore told AFP by phone.
“We were in the open sea, we were looking for crab on the coast,” he said.
“We ran for our lives, then we ran for our homes.”
At his home in the village of about 1,000 people, the earthquake had thrown objects to the ground, smashing cups in the kitchen, Pore said.
“People were moving uphill,” he added, for fear of a tsunami tidal wave.
But Pore said he saw no structural damage to homes in his village.
The shallow quake struck around 11:30 p.m. local time (12:30 GMT) about 27 kilometers (17 miles) deep, according to the US Geological Survey, which placed it about 25 kilometers from the village of Espiritu Santo in Port- Olry.
People could feel the quake as far away as Port Vila on Etafe Island, said Natasha Joel, receptionist at the capital’s Grand Hotel and Casino.
However, the tremor was “a bit small” there and no guests were evacuated from the hotel, she said.
A tsunami warning was initially issued for Vanuatu, New Caledonia and the Solomon Islands, but canceled about an hour and a half after the earthquake.
“Tsunami waves as high as 0.3 to one meter above tide level are possible for some coasts in Vanuatu,” said the NWS Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii.
Waves below 0.3 meters were possible for New Caledonia and the Solomon Islands, he added.
The French Embassy in Vanuatu advised people to stay away from the coast in a post on its official Facebook page.
Residents reported on social media that there had been damage.
“A big!!” a person posted on Facebook. “Lots of broken things all around.”
New Zealand’s National Emergency Management Agency said there was no tsunami threat to its country.
Vanuatu is part of the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, where tectonic plates collide, and experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity.
The Solomon Islands, an island nation just north of Vanuatu, was hit in November by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake, although no serious injuries or major structural damage were reported.
In 2018, a magnitude 7.5 earthquake followed by a tsunami on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi left more than 4,300 people dead or missing.
Vanuatu is ranked as one of the countries most prone to natural disasters such as earthquakes, storm damage, floods and tsunamis, according to the annual World Hazards Report.
The epicenter of the strong quake was in the sea just off the northern bay of the largest island of Espiritu Santo, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of the archipelago’s capital. Port Vila.
Kayson Pore, a 22-year-old student from Hog Harbor village in Espiritu Santo, said he was looking for crab on the beach with half a dozen friends when the earth shook.
“It was very huge,” Pore told AFP by phone.
“We were in the open sea, we were looking for crab on the coast,” he said.
“We ran for our lives, then we ran for our homes.”
At his home in the village of about 1,000 people, the earthquake had thrown objects to the ground, smashing cups in the kitchen, Pore said.
“People were moving uphill,” he added, for fear of a tsunami tidal wave.
But Pore said he saw no structural damage to homes in his village.
The shallow quake struck around 11:30 p.m. local time (12:30 GMT) about 27 kilometers (17 miles) deep, according to the US Geological Survey, which placed it about 25 kilometers from the village of Espiritu Santo in Port- Olry.
People could feel the quake as far away as Port Vila on Etafe Island, said Natasha Joel, receptionist at the capital’s Grand Hotel and Casino.
However, the tremor was “a bit small” there and no guests were evacuated from the hotel, she said.
A tsunami warning was initially issued for Vanuatu, New Caledonia and the Solomon Islands, but canceled about an hour and a half after the earthquake.
“Tsunami waves as high as 0.3 to one meter above tide level are possible for some coasts in Vanuatu,” said the NWS Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii.
Waves below 0.3 meters were possible for New Caledonia and the Solomon Islands, he added.
The French Embassy in Vanuatu advised people to stay away from the coast in a post on its official Facebook page.
Residents reported on social media that there had been damage.
“A big!!” a person posted on Facebook. “Lots of broken things all around.”
New Zealand’s National Emergency Management Agency said there was no tsunami threat to its country.
Vanuatu is part of the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, where tectonic plates collide, and experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity.
The Solomon Islands, an island nation just north of Vanuatu, was hit in November by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake, although no serious injuries or major structural damage were reported.
In 2018, a magnitude 7.5 earthquake followed by a tsunami on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi left more than 4,300 people dead or missing.
Vanuatu is ranked as one of the countries most prone to natural disasters such as earthquakes, storm damage, floods and tsunamis, according to the annual World Hazards Report.
