A major earthquake has shook the Tonga, an archipelago nation in the South Pacific Ocean which includes some 170 islands.
The US Geological Survey estimated that the magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck about 60 miles northeast of the main island, Tongatapu, where the capital Nuku’Alofa is located, and about 50 miles southeast of an island different from the archipelago called Pangai. The first observations of the USGS suggested parts of Tongatapu and Pangai may have experienced light or moderate tremors as a result of the earthquake.
No damage or injury has been reported so far. The earthquake occurred at 1:18 am local time – technically early Monday morning – triggering a warning from tsunami who advised people in the threat area to evacuate towards higher land or take refuge inside steel or concrete buildings, or designated tsunami evacuation sites, depending on the Tonga meteorological services. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, had also expressed an alert that warned potentially dangerous waves linked to the earthquake, but the center has since declared that the threat to the tsunami had passed.
US Geological Survey
Tonga Meteorological Services Director, Laitia Fifita, said the agency closely monitored sea level but had not detected dangerous activity several hours after the earthquake, the local Talanoa O Tonga news site reported.
This earthquake followed another massif on Friday in Myanmar, which had a magnitude of 7.7 and left thousands of deaths, injured and missing In and around two of the main urban areas of this country, Mandalay and Naypitaw. The Myanmar earthquake has also struck neighboring Thailand, with at least dozens of dead and wounded in and around the capital Bangkok, the authorities said.
On Sunday, more than 200 were missing in certain parts of Myanmar and Thailand in the aftermath of the earthquake. The destructive event has also flattened buildings in hard places, where officials said they were continuing to search for additional leftovers.
The Associated Press contributed the reports.