MAGNITUDE 7.8 QUAKE STRIKES NEAR TONGA
Magnitude 7.8 Quake Strikes Near Tonga
By PESI FONUA
NUKU'ALOFA, Tonga (AP) - A massive magnitude 7.8 earthquake rocked the ocean bed near the South Pacific island nation of Tonga, but U.S. officials lifted initial warnings of a possible tsunami as far away as New Zealand.
No giant waves hit Tonga, and authorities in New Zealand - after initially going on high alert - said there was no danger of a damaging wave slamming into the New Zealand east coast.
Sergeant James Tasmania of Gisborne police said civil defense authorities such as police had been put on ``high alert,'' but he added that ``none of the (ocean) monitoring buoys have reported anything significant.''
In the Tongan capital, the coastal city of Nuku'alofa, there were no signs of a tsunami or major damage caused by the giant quake.
A reporter who drove through the city saw no building damage, but said that inside buildings he could see bookshelves that toppled over. Power in the city was restored some two hours after the quake.
The quake generated a small tsunami that ``may have been destructive along coasts near the earthquake epicenter,'' the Hawaii-based U.S. Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said in a statement.
Tonga - a 170-island archipelago about halfway between Australia and Tahiti - has a population of about 108,000 and an economy dependent on pumpkin and vanilla exports, fishing, foreign aid and remittances from Tongans abroad. It is ruled by 87-year-old King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV, who is ailing.
On Dec. 26, 2004, the most powerful earthquake in four decades - magnitude 9.0 - ripped apart the Indian Ocean floor off Indonesia's Sumatra island, displacing millions of tons of water and spawning giant waves that sped off in all directions. The tsunami left at least 216,000 people dead or missing in a dozen nations.
Fiji, a South Pacific country made up of more than 300 islands, a third of which are inhabited, is regularly rattled by earthquakes, but few cause any damage or casualties.
By PESI FONUA
NUKU'ALOFA, Tonga (AP) - A massive magnitude 7.8 earthquake rocked the ocean bed near the South Pacific island nation of Tonga, but U.S. officials lifted initial warnings of a possible tsunami as far away as New Zealand.
No giant waves hit Tonga, and authorities in New Zealand - after initially going on high alert - said there was no danger of a damaging wave slamming into the New Zealand east coast.
Sergeant James Tasmania of Gisborne police said civil defense authorities such as police had been put on ``high alert,'' but he added that ``none of the (ocean) monitoring buoys have reported anything significant.''
In the Tongan capital, the coastal city of Nuku'alofa, there were no signs of a tsunami or major damage caused by the giant quake.
A reporter who drove through the city saw no building damage, but said that inside buildings he could see bookshelves that toppled over. Power in the city was restored some two hours after the quake.
The quake generated a small tsunami that ``may have been destructive along coasts near the earthquake epicenter,'' the Hawaii-based U.S. Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said in a statement.
Tonga - a 170-island archipelago about halfway between Australia and Tahiti - has a population of about 108,000 and an economy dependent on pumpkin and vanilla exports, fishing, foreign aid and remittances from Tongans abroad. It is ruled by 87-year-old King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV, who is ailing.
On Dec. 26, 2004, the most powerful earthquake in four decades - magnitude 9.0 - ripped apart the Indian Ocean floor off Indonesia's Sumatra island, displacing millions of tons of water and spawning giant waves that sped off in all directions. The tsunami left at least 216,000 people dead or missing in a dozen nations.
Fiji, a South Pacific country made up of more than 300 islands, a third of which are inhabited, is regularly rattled by earthquakes, but few cause any damage or casualties.
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