Major 7.1 quake strikes Papua New Guinea: USGS
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A violent 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck Papua New Guinea on Wednesday, shaking buildings and swaying powerlines, but no immediate tsunami warning was issued.
The quake, initially rated at 7.3, struck at 3:04 pm (0504 GMT) at a depth of 121 kilometres (75 miles) southwest of the coastal city of Lae and 221 kilometres from the capital Port Moresby, the US Geological Survey said.
Witnesses in Port Moresby told AFP people came running out of buildings and parked cars rocked.
"It was pretty strong, everybody felt it. I was siting in my car when it hit and it was rocking, rocking, rocking," said an AFP photographer.
Geoscience Australia said it was not expected to create a tsunami.
"It's not tsunamigenic," seismologist Clive Collins told AFP.
"That's the assessment on the basis that it's about 20 kilometres inshore and also it's about 120 kilometres deep and that's too deep really to cause any tsunami problems."
But Collins said the quake could cause other problems for the nearest largest town, Wau, about 20 kilometres from the epicentre, and Lae.
"It's in a mountainous area so there may be issues of landslides and things like that, that's what's the main problem in that particular part of Papua New Guinea," Collins said.
Papua New Guinea is regularly hit by earthquakes due to its proximity to the so-called "Pacific Ring of Fire", a hotspot for seismic activity due to friction between tectonic plates.
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