Wellington, Dec 18
Seismologists in New Zealand and Australia are expecting a significant damage from the large earthquake that struck Vanuatu on Tuesday.
The 7.3-magnitude shallow earthquake caused strong shaking near the capital Port Vila, about 30 km from the epicentre, at 12:47 local time, with a depth of 43 km, the US Geological Survey said.
The earthquake, described by locals as a "violent, high-frequency vertical shake," left at least 14 people dead and hundreds more injured so far, and an initial tsunami warning has since been lifted.
Associate Professor Kasper van Wijk at Department of Physics, University of Auckland, said this particular earthquake was shallow and close to Port Vila, so significant damage would be expected, as Vanuatu is situated, like New Zealand, on top of a subduction zone.
Mark Stirling, chair of Earthquake Science, University of Otago, said this earthquake occurred at ground zero of one of the most active plate boundaries, and the subduction zone between the Vanuatu microplate and Australian plate was moving extremely fast, about 170 mm per year, so major earthquakes were commonplace there.