A magnitude 7.7 earthquake shaking the South Pacific has triggered a tsunami, the Australian meteorological bureau confirmed Wednesday.
“Confirmed tsunami,” the agency said in a tweet, specifically alluding to a direct threat to Lord Howe Island, some 350 miles east of the Australian continent.
A magnitude 7.7 earthquake shook the Loyalty Islands, an archipelago of the French territory of New Caledonia, in the South Pacific on Wednesday.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS), which monitors global seismic activity, has located the hypocenter 10 kilometers below the sea floor.
The same agency located the earthquake about 413 kilometers west of Vao, in New Caledonia and 417 kilometers northeast of Tafao, in Vanuatu.
In turn, the Pacific Tsunami Warning System reported potential waves of between 12 inches and 1 meter off the coasts of New Caledonia and Vanuatu and Fiji.
New Caledonia is close to the Pacific Ring of Fire and the Lau Basin underwater volcanoes, so it regularly registers seismic shocks.