quake

A strong earthquake hit off the coast of the South Pacific island of Vanuatu on Monday, but Australian seismologists said it was unlikely to trigger a tsunami or cause other damage. Geoscience Australia initially said the undersea quake, centred about 200 kilometres south of Port Vila between Vanuatu and New Caledonia, had a magnitude of 6.6.It later downgraded the tremor to a 6.3 magnitude."It would have been felt in some of the southern Vanuatu islands," duty seismologist Hugh Glanville said, but he added that the radius of the quake zone meant it was unlikely to have caused any damage on land."We issued a nil threat for Australia in terms of a tsunami warning. There's quite a slim chance there would be a local tsunami - but it's very unlikely," he said. 5pm 08/09/08