Earthquake off New Zealand prompts tsunami warning

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Earthquake off New Zealand prompts tsunami warning
Earthquake off New Zealand prompts tsunami warning

The magnitude 6.9 earthquake occurred near the town of Gisborne. It could lead to “dangerous tsunami waves on the coast”.

NATURAL DISASTER

– A magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck off New Zealand on Friday (March 5) local time, the American Institute of Geophysics (USGS) said, prompting a tsunami warning.

earthquake

The earthquake struck 180 km northeast of the town of Gisborne on Friday at 2:27 a.m. (1:27 p.m. GMT this Thursday), at a relatively shallow depth of 10 km. “Based on the preliminary parameters of the earthquake, dangerous tsunami waves are possible on coasts within 300 km of the epicenter,” the Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said ( United States).

New Zealand authorities reported a magnitude greater than 7.3 and announced evacuation measures. “The tsunami activity will continue for several hours and the threat must be considered real until this warning is canceled,” they insisted.

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The earthquake was strongly felt in the North Island of New Zealand. More than 50,000 people have reported it on the local monitoring application Geonet.

No damage or casualties have yet been reported.

New Zealand is located on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, a junction area of ​​tectonic plates with strong seismic and volcanic activity. The South Pacific country recently marked the 10th anniversary of the Christchurch 6.3-magnitude earthquake that killed 185 people in the city on the South Island.

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