Undersea earthquake of 7.7 magnitude sets off small tsunami in South Pacific islands

Wellington: Small tsunami waves were detected in South Pacific islands after an undersea earthquake early Thursday morning. Waves of 10 centimetres (4 inches) were measured in Vanuatu and a smaller tsunami was detected in New Caledonia, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said. Vasiti Soko, the director of Fiji’s National Disaster Management Office, tweeted that the tsunami warning had been canceled and wrote: “Fiji we are safe.” The tsunami followed an undersea earthquake near the Loyalty Islands, which are part of New Caledonia. The US Geological Agency said the quake was strong and shallow, at magnitude 7.7 and just 10 kilometres (6 miles) deep. The Loyalty Islands archipelago is about 1,800 kilometres (1,100 miles) north of New Zealand and 1,600 kilometres (990 miles) east-northeast of Brisbane, Australia. The islands sit along the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” a horseshoe-shaped series of seismic faults around the ocean where most of the world’s earthquakes occur.