A 7.5-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Papua New Guinea late on Saturday local time. Despite the strong quake, there have not yet been any reports of damage.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake hit about 68 kilometers away and at a depth of 10 kilometers from the island of Buogainville and the town of Paguna, reports Reuters. Tsunami warnings were briefly issued following the strength of the quake for Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.
Warnings issued by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center were soon cancelled and noted that no other areas, including Australia, needed to worry about a possible tsunami.
Just last Saturday, the nearby Solomon Islands was hit by a magnitude 7.3 earthquake, which also cancelled tsunami warnings fairly quickly for nearby areas.
"Certainly it has been very active, more active than usual," Jonathan, a Geoscience Australia seismologist, said. "(The spate of earthquakes) is relieving some pressure on this faultline, but we can't rule out another large earthquake."
Though there doesn't appear to have been any tsunami generated this time, Papua New Guinea will remember a slightly smaller magnitude quake, a 7, that triggered a tsunami back in 1998 that killed over 2,000 people near Aitape.