Tsunami warning for 7.0-magnitude earthquake off New Zealand’s northern coast

A 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit the Kermadec Islands, an archipelago north of New Zealand, on Thursday, prompting authorities to respond by issuing a tsunami warning.

The quake struck at 1:56 p.m. (0056 GMT) and its hypocenter was located 22 kilometers under the sea in the Pacific Ocean, according to data from the United States Geological Survey (USGS), which measures seismic activity around the world.

The quake was 980 kilometers from Ohonua in Tonga and 998 kilometers from the island nation’s capital, Nuku’alofa.

For its part, the US National Weather Service’s Tsunami Warning System warned of the risk of a tsunami for “coasts located up to 300 kilometers from the epicenter” and “predicted waves of less than 0.3 meters. Wave conditions”.

The Kermadec Islands, located between New Zealand and Tonga, are uninhabited except for personnel at a permanently established base on Raoul Island, which houses a weather and radio station.

New Zealand sits on a fault line between the Pacific and Oceanic tectonic plates and records about 14,000 earthquakes each year, 100 to 150 of which are powerful enough to be felt.