Magnitude 7 earthquake shakes Papua New Guinea; no tsunami or reports of injury, damage

Magnitude 7 quake shakes Papua New Guinea

CANBERRA, Australia — A magnitude 7 earthquake shook Papua New Guinea on Thursday, U.S. Geological Survey said. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage and no risk of a significant tsunami in the South Pacific’s most populous island nation.

The agency said in a statement that the quake struck near the island province of New Britain 352 miles (566 kilometers) northeast of the national capital Port Moresby.

Nellie Setepano, a reporter at the Post-Courier newspaper based in Port Moresby, said there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.

David Walsh, an oceanographer at the Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, said there was no risk of a significant tsunami, possibly because the quake was 34 miles (54 kilometers) below the Earth’s crust.

Papua New Guinea lies on the “Ring of Fire” — an arc of earthquake and volcanic zones that stretches around the Pacific Rim and where about 90 percent of the world’s quakes occur.