World

Magnitude 7.0 earthquake strikes Papua New Guinea

By AAP Newswire

Apr 3, 2023

PNG QUAKE — A mag 7.0 earthquake has struck in the northern part of Papua New Guinea at a depth of 62 kilometres -AAP Image

Disaster relief workers in Papua New Guinea are assessing the extent of damage in a remote region following a powerful magnitude 7.0 earthquake.

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Some buildings and homes were destroyed near the quake's epicentre in the northern part of the Pacific nation, said Mathew Moihoi, acting assistant director of the Port Moresby Geophysical Observatory.Â

He said disaster relief workers were trying to verify whether there were any deaths or serious injuries.

He said the region is marked by swamps and people tend to live subsistence lives hunting and fishing, and that because of the region's remoteness and patchy communications, it could take several days to figure out the extent of the damage.

Moihoi said the quake was big enough to be felt in surrounding regions, including in the nation's highlands.

The quake struck just after 4am on Monday at Chambri Lake and the epicentre was relatively deep at 62 kilometres, according to the US Geological Survey. Deeper earthquakes tend to create less damage on the surface than those that are shallow.

PNG sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire," the arc of seismic faults around the Pacific Ocean where much of the world's earthquake and volcanic activity occurs.

A magnitude 7.6 quake that struck a remote area of PNG in September was later found to have killed 21 people.

By AAP Newswire

Australian Associated Press