Massive earthquake hits Papua New Guinea, extent of damage unknown

Renagi Ravu was meeting with two colleagues at his home. Papua New Guinea A massive 7.6-magnitude earthquake hit the highlands Sunday morning.

Ravu tried to get up from his chair but was unable to keep his balance and ended up in a sort of group hug with his co-workers, causing plates and cups to crash off the shelves and onto the ground. His children aged 9 and his 2 year old ended up spilling their drinks and breakfast.

Geologist Ravu said he tried to calm everyone down after the shaking lasted for more than a minute.

The extent of the damage and whether the earthquake caused serious injuries or deaths was not clear in the immediate aftermath in remote and undeveloped areas.

Ravu said his town of Kainanthu, 66 kilometers (41 miles) from the quake’s epicenter, is the closest major city to the quake, with about 10,000 people living in and around it. He said the highlands were dotted with many settlements and that tens of thousands of people may have been affected.

He said people feel rattled.

“It’s common for earthquakes to be felt here, but they usually don’t last this long and they aren’t as intense as this one,” Ravu said. “It was pretty intense.”

On Sunday morning, Ravu inspected the damage to his home. Judging by the smell, it likely contained a broken sewer pipe, he said. Friends elsewhere in Kainantu gave him accounts of cracked roads, broken pipes and falling debris, but he described collapses and injuries to major buildings. said there wasn’t.

“They are starting to clean up the houses and the streets,” he said. He added that several mobile phone base stations may have collapsed, and communications appear to be affected.

In 2018, a magnitude 7.5 earthquake hit the central United States, killing at least 125 people. The quake hit a remote and undeveloped area, and it took time to rule out assessments of the extent of damage and injuries.

Felix Taranu, seismologist at the Capital’s Geophysical Observatory Port Moresbysaid its strength meant it “likely caused considerable damage”, but said it was too early to know the impact of Sunday’s quake.

The quake struck at 9:46 a.m. local time at a depth of 90 kilometers (56 miles), according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

NOAA It has since advised that there is no tsunami threat in the area.

Papua New Guinea is located on the eastern half of the island of New Guinea, east of Indonesia, and north of eastern Australia.

It is located in the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, the arc of seismic faults around the Pacific where much of the world’s seismic and volcanic activity occurs.