A magnitude 7.5 earthquake shook Papua New Guinea: a tsunami warning has been announced in the Pacific

A powerful 7.5 degree earthquake on the Richter scale was recorded Tuesday near the island of Kokopo, in Papua New Guinea, reported the United States Geological Survey.

The movement, 10 kilometers deeptriggered a tsunami warning in the archipelago and in the Solomon Islands. At the present time, no damage or casualty is reported.

"It was huge, really huge, very alarming," said AFP Megan Martin, director of a hotel complex in Kokopo, Ropopo Plantation. "It does not seem that we have suffered damage, but we are checking," he added.

The Tsunami Warning Center reported that "based on preliminary parameters (…) It is possible that tsunami waves will occur on the shores within 1,000 km of the epicenter of the earthquake."

The Peruvian and Chilean authorities, also based in the Pacific, have ruled that the movement generates waves of danger on its coasts, although they have continued to badyze the information.

Papua New Guinea is located on the Pacific Ring of Fire, an area of ​​high seismic and volcanic activity that is shaken each year by some 7,000 earthquakes, most of them moderate.

The ring of fire, where the earth trembles

The coasts that surround the Pacific, on either side, draw a horseshoe-shaped line, which begins in Chile, accompanies the coordinator of the Andes in Colombia and continues until the United States and in part of Canada through Central America. At the height of the Aleutian Islands, it doubles and begins its descent along the coasts of Russia, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, New Guinea and New Zealand.

On this 40,000 kilometer line, extends the region where seismic and volcanic activity is the most intense in the world. The constant movement of the tectonic plates generates tensions which, when released, produce earthquakes. Volcanoes, on the other hand, are also the result of these movements.

(With information from AFP)