Magnitude 6.7 earthquake strikes near Vanuatu

On the island of "Survior".... Associated PressLast updated 09:18am (Mla time) 08/08/2006 SYDNEY, Australia -- A powerful magnitude 6.7 earthquake struck the Pacific islands nation of Vanuatu early Tuesday, but caused no injuries or damage, officials said. The temblor struck about 220 kilometers (140 miles) northwest of the capital, Port Vila, at 9:18 a.m. local time (2218 GMT) and was centered 149 kilometers (93 miles) below the earth's surface, the U.S. Geological Survey said. Job Esau, the director of Vanuatu's National Disaster Management Office, said there were reports of injury or damage at Port Vila or any of the country's outlying islands. "There's nothing happening there," Esau told The Associated Press by telephone from the capital. "This happened in the middle of the ocean, between the islands, so no damage was done to the buildings ... nothing." Gerard Fryer, a geophysicist at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center at Ewa Beach, Hawaii, said the earthquake was too deep to pose any major tsunami risk. "Although it was a sizable earthquake ... the epicenter was 150 kilometers [93 miles] deep, which is too deep to deform the sea floor," Fryer said. "We've actually checked the tidal gauge at Port Vila and there's no risk of a tsunami at all." Earthquakes of this magnitude are relatively common in Vanuatu, which is part of the Pacific Ocean's "Ring of Fire." In April, a magnitude 6 earthquake rocked the tiny archipelago but caused no injuries, damage or local tsunami. Vanuatu, formerly the New Hebrides Islands, is made up of 13 main islands located about 2,250 kilometers (1,400 miles) east of Australia. http://newsinfo.inq7.net/breakingnews/world/view_article.php?article_id=14073