A powerful 7.2-magnitude earthquake stuck near the remoteKermadec Islands northeast of New Zealand Sunday, briefly prompting a tsunamiwarning.
After initially forecasting “a threat to beach,harbour, estuary and small boat activities”, New Zealand’s Civil Defenceorganisation gave the all-clear eight minutes later.
The earthquake was given a preliminary magnitude of 7.4, butlater downgraded to 7.2 by the US Geological Survey.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center also lifted its tsunamiwarning for parts of the South Pacific but said “minor sea levelfluctuations may occur in some coastal areas near the earthquake”.
The earthquake struck at 10:55am (0425 IST) at a depth of 10kilometres some 928 kilometres north-northeast of the New Zealand city ofTauranga in the North Island.
The Kermadecs are uninhabited apart from a few New Zealandconservation workers based on Raoul Island, the largest in the area.
The islands are the peaks of volcanoes, some of them active,that rise above sea level and are often rocked by earthquakes above magnitude7.0. In recent years they experienced one in 2006, another in 2007 and two in2011.
The Kermadecs are part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, a hotbedof volcanic and earthquake activity at the intersection of several tectonicplates.