The tremor hit at a depth of 29 kilometres (18 miles) some 253 kilometres from the capital Noumea and 109 kilometres from Tadine in the lightly populated Loyalty Islands. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said there was no current threat, with experts saying while shaking would have been felt, damage was unlikely. "It was quite a distance from Noumea, but there are some smaller islands closer which certainly would have experienced a good shake," Geoscience Australia seismologist Jonathan Bathgate told AFP. This area experiences these type of events fairly often. New Caledonia is part of the "Ring of Fire", a zone of tectonic activity around the Pacific that is subject to frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

Source: The Nation Bangkok October 31, 2017 01:30 UTC