Magnitude 7.6 earthquake jolts Papua New Guinea: CENC

Jakarta, The Gulf Observer: A magnitude-7.6 earthquake jolted Papua New Guinea on Sunday, according to the China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC).

The quake was recorded at a depth of 70 kilometers.

The Chinese Embassy in Papua New Guinea urged caution over potential aftershocks and said it had not received any reports of Chinese casualties.

The U.S tsunami warning system issued a warning after the quake, but later said the threat had passed.

The quake was felt strongly in the capital Port Moresby, prompting some people to flee their homes.

Papua New Guinea residents on Twitter described feeling tremors and shared images and videos of items falling off supermarket shelves.

The U.S. National Tsunami Warning Center issued a tsunami warning after the quake but it later said the threat had passed. However, it noted that there could still be “minor sea level fluctuations in some coastal areas.”

Earthquakes are common in Papua New Guinea, which sits on the Pacific’s “Ring of Fire,” a hotspot for seismic activity due to friction between tectonic plates.

A magnitude-7.5 quake rocked the country’s remote mountainous highlands in 2018, killing more 100 people and damaging thousands of homes.