A strong earthquake struck near the Vanuatu Islands on early Sunday evening, seismologists said, but no tsunami warning was issued.The 6.9-magnitude earthquake at 9.03 p.m. local time (1003 GMT) was centered about 112 kilometers (69 miles) west-northwest from Isangel a city on the Vanuatu island of Tanna. It struck about 31.1 kilometers (19.3 miles) deep, making it a shallow earthquake, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).
In a bulletin, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said there is no destructive widespread tsunami threat based on historical earthquake and tsunami data. "However, earthquakes of this size sometimes generate local tsunamis that can be destructive along coasts located within a hundred kilometers of the earthquake epicenter," the center said, without issuing any tsunami alert.
