|HT|
An earthquake of magnitude 7.6 shook northeastern Papua New Guinea on Sunday morning, a day after series of tremors were felt in the region. The earthquake jolted the Kainantu town in the eastern New Guinea region at 6:46am local time (5:16am IST). The epicentre of the quake was at a depth of 61.4 km located 67 kilometers (42 miles) east of Kainantu, a sparsely populated area, according to the US Geological Survey.
The latitude of the quake was 6.224°S while the Longitude was 146.471°E.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has since removed the tsunami threat for the area.
There have been no reports of damages or casualties as of now.
Papua New Guinea lies in the "Ring of Fire", an area in the basin of the Pacific Ocean vulnerable to frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
Since 1900, the New Guinea region has recorded 22 earthquake of magnitude 7.5 and above. The strongest earthquake in the region was a 8.2 magnitude, a shallow thrust fault event in the northern Papua province of Indonesia that killed 166 people in 1996.
On Saturday, a series of strong inland earthquakes shook Indonesia's easternmost province. The Indonesian Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency recorded at least four land-based earthquakes between 6.2 and 5.5 magnitude, centred about 37 km northwest of Central Mamberamo district of West Papua province at a depth up to 16 km.
(Except for the headline and the pictorial description, this story has not been edited by THE DEN staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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