At 9:45 a.m., a 7.6 magnitude earthquake occurred. Sunday local time, roughly 50 kilometers northwest of Lee. The entire nation was shaken, including the capital city of Port Moresby, which experienced moderate to severe shaking for more than a minute.
After a significant earthquake in the Southwest Pacific region rocked Papua New Guinea, at least seven fatalities have been reported.
At 9:45 a.m., a 7.6 magnitude earthquake occurred. According to the United States Geological Survey, the location occurred about local time on Sunday, roughly 50 miles to the northwest of Lake at a depth of around 38 miles. The entire nation was shaken, including the capital city of Port Moresby, which experienced moderate to severe shaking for more than a minute.
Social media reports reportedly included images of collapsing buildings or other debris, as well as damage to homes, hospitals, roads, and highways.
At 10:42 a.m., a second 5.0-magnitude earthquake occurred. Sunday local time, some 45 miles northwest of the preceding earthquake’s epicenter.
The U.S. National Tsunami Warning Center had earlier revoked a warning against a potential tsunami brought on by the earthquake.
The death toll has now reached seven, according to the island’s police commissioner, David Manning, who made the announcement on Sunday.
Landslides brought on by the earthquake’s vibrations harmed both highways and structures. According to the commissioner, seven persons died as a result of the landslides.
Powerful quake hits Papua New Guinea, 5 dead – The Nation https://t.co/g5UGqDAI8J PORT MORESBY – An earthquake of magnitude 7.6 struck eastern Papua New Guinea on Sunday killing at least five people, injuring. #PNG #Wantok #TruplaPNG #Pacific_Islands
— Trupla PNG (@truplapng) September 13, 2022
In a statement, the commissioner stated that “seven individuals have sadly been verified dead as a result of these landslides. Three in Kabwum District, three in Wau Town, Morobe Province, and one in Rai Coast, Madang Province.”
One death was recorded on Rai Coast, and three more in Wau and Morobe, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Asia and the Pacific. Landslides buried each victim in its entirety. Four persons were transported medically from Nankina on the Rai Coast.
Multiple provinces experienced a complete system outage as a result of damage to an Eastern Highlands hydropower plant.
The districts of the provinces of Morobe, Eastern Highlands, and Madang have reportedly sustained the most substantial damage, according to the Royal Papua New Guinea commissioner.
The earthquake happened as a result of typical faulting close to the Australia plate’s northern boundary, according to the United States Geological Survey.
Papua New Guinea has a high rate of seismic activity, with 78 earthquakes with a magnitude of 6 or more happening nearby in the previous 50 years. 15 kilometers from Salient, a magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck in 1989.
FAQs
What Papua New Guinea earthquake was the largest?
An M8.2 shallow thrust fault event in Indonesia’s northern Papua province in 1996 that killed 166 people was the largest earthquake in the area.
Do earthquakes occur in Papua New Guinea?
Authorities report that at least three people have died after a strong earthquake struck a rural area of Papua New Guinea early on Sunday. The magnitude 7.6 earthquake that shook the Pacific nation also caused infrastructure damage and other injuries.
Where were the seven? six quakes?
Papua New Guinea’s east
Sept. 11 (Reuters) – A 7.6-magnitude earthquake that occurred on Sunday in eastern Papua New Guinea resulted in at least four fatalities, several injuries, and significant property damage.
