New Zealand authorities are urging residents along its northern coast to avoid beaches and shore areas after a strong earthquake struck southeast of the Loyalty Islands in the Pacific, with Australia’s Lord Howe Island also on alert.
The New Zealand National Emergency Management Agency said people should get out of the water, off beaches and away from harbours, rivers and estuaries in areas from Ahipara to Bay of Islands, Great Barrier Island and from Matata to Tolaga Bay.
“We expect New Zealand coastal areas to experience strong and unusual currents and unpredictable surges at the shore,” the agency said in a statement.
Geoscience Australia said the 7.6 magnitude quake’s epicentre was about 400km east of Tadine, New Caledonia, and was at a depth of 54km.
The quake, at 12.20am AEDT on Thursday, followed at least three other tremors in the region with magnitudes ranging from 6.0 to 6.2 in a span of just over an hour.
“Sea level observations have confirmed a tsunami has been generated,” the Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Centre said in a bulletin, adding that a marine warning was current for Lord Howe Island from 2.45am AEDT.
“People in areas with threat of land inundation and flooding are strongly advised by emergency authorities to go to higher ground or at least 1 kilometre inland,” the JATWC bulletin advised.
The US Tsunami Warning System said a tsunami watch was in effect for American Samoa and that there was potential for tsunamis in other regions including Vanuatu, Fiji and New Zealand.
Waves reaching up to a level of one metre above the normal tide level are possible for some coasts of Vanuatu, Fiji and New Zealand, it added.
