An earthquake of the magnitude of 7.6 hit eastern Papua New Guinea on Sunday morning. The US Geological Survey first issued a tsunami warning which was later withdrawn.
Striking at a depth of 90 km and about 67 km from the town of Kainantu, experts were expecting tsunami waves possible within 1,000 km of the epicentre, reported AFP. A hazardous tsunami was anticipated along the coasts of Papua New Guinea and Indonesia.
Kainantu has a population of about 8,500 people. The damage caused by the earthquake is unclear as there are several scattered settlements in the highlands. Experts think tens of thousands of people might have been affected, reported ABC news.
In 2018, a magnitude 7.5 earthquake in the Pacific Island nation's central region killed around 125 people. This time, the US body National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration thinks the impact will be relatively localised.
Papua New Guinea is on the eastern half of the island of New Guinea which is to the east of Indonesia and the north of eastern Australia. The island is located on the Pacific's Ring of Fire, the arc of seismic faults around the ocean. A seismic fault refers to a fracture or a zone of fractures between blocks of rock. This will allow the blocks to move relative to each other, rapidly or slowly. Ring of Fire is home to most of the planet's earthquakes and volcanic activity.
Experts think today's earthquake was a result of normal faulting near the north edge of the Australia plate. At the epicentre, the plate moves towards the east-northeast relative to the Pacific plate. Quakes in this region are usually linked to the large-scale convergence of two major plates - the Australia plate and the Pacific plate along with the complex interaction of several microplates including the South Bismarck plate, the Solomon Sea microplate, and the Woodlark plate.
Considered to be an intermediate depth earthquake, today's incident hints at deformation within subducted slabs rather than overriding tectonic plates. Experts think these cause less damage on the ground surface. However, they are likely to be felt at great distances from their epicentre.