A 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck near the Pacific island nation of Tonga on Tuesday, according to the United States Geological Survey, triggering sirens in the capital though no tsunami was expected.
There were no immediate reports of any damage or casualties. Footage from the Tonga Broadcasting Commission showed people gathered on a rooftop in the capital of Nuku’alofa with warning sirens heard in the background.
The Tonga National Disaster Risk Management Office issued a tsunami warning for coastal areas, urging people to move to higher ground or inland.
But the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said “there is no tsunami threat because the earthquake is located too deep inside the earth.”
The USGS said the quake struck at a depth of nearly 238 kilometers, and its epicenter was about 150 kilometers from the town of Neiafu.
Tonga sits on the “Pacific Ring of Fire,” one of world’s most geologically active zones, and is subject to frequent earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic activity.
Tonga is an archipelago in Polynesia made up of 171 islands with just over 100,000 people, most of whom live on the main island of Tongatapu. Tuesday’s quake was centered nearer to the Vava’u island group.
A person who answered the phone at the Tanoa International Dateline Hotel on the beachfront at Nuku’alofa, which is on Tongatapu, said she wasn’t aware of any damage.
“The whole building shaked. No further damage. Everything was ok,” she said.
Tonga is situated on the Pacific Ring of Fire, the arc of seismic faults where much of the world’s earthquake and volcanic activity occurs. A tsunami set off by a volcanic eruption in 2022 killed three people.
The island nation is about 1,800 kilometers northeast of New Zealand, where disaster management officials said Tuesday that there was no tsunami threat to the country.
